RWBY: Dual Eclipse
by Master C.V.G
Summary: Following the end of Dimensional Gate Screwover, Nelius finds himself in an all-new world, one beset on multiple sides by all sorts of troubles... but those may prove paltry to the events yet to come. Currently rated T for violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'  
**Scene Transitions**

Author's Note: Ah, that miscellaneous mire that can be the mind. Always swarming with new ideas, yet fleeting enough to escape when you try to grasp 'em.

For the longest time, I had a RWBY character idea floating about, yet every time I've tried writing about them, things just ground to a halt. Whether it be trying to place them within the world, expand upon their backstory... things just stop and refuse to go anywhere. While I did originally conceptualize them for an RP, I figured they had enough to stand on their own... guess I still need more to work with on them.

So yeah, this... this originally started out as an attempt to flesh out that aformentioned character, but time and waning interest turned it into something else that kept popping up in my mind and refusing to go away. As most whom have read my prior works would know, I'm an avid Disgaea player. The series has managed to keep my interest whereas interest in other RPGs just kinda petered out, largely due to the excessive amount of post-game content and sheer customization for your units. For most people, it'd be an intimidating experience, but for someone like me whom enjoys getting the most out of their games, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

When you've poured thousands of hours into the series and its related works, and you're still finding new ways to play the game...

Anyway, this whole prompt came up due to this idea: as RWBY has a focus on weaponry used to combat the Grimm and other people, suppose that the Item World diving mechanic was introduced. Of course, since everyone's weaponry either doubles as guns or has some kind of secondary function, and thus there are many interchangable parts, I might have to do a bit of retooling as this prompt goes on. Depending on how this goes on, I may either expand this into something else or just leave it as is.

Either way, on with the show. I had to do a hell of a lot of guesswork and research to get a fair timeline for this story.

Disclaim-me-do: RWBY belongs to RoosterTeeth, Disgaea and its associated mechanics belong to Nippon Ichi Software. This is a for-fun kinda project.

Chapter 1: The Landing

The world of Remnant was one cast amidst in turmoil - ravenous monstrosities known as the Grimm ran far and wide, devastating civilizations and feasting off the humans' negative emotion. To combat these beasts, humanity utilized many different weapons, in conjuction with the natural resource known as Dust. Combined with the ability to wield their souls as both a protective Aura and as a Semblance unique to each individual, the Grimm were pushed back, but not completely taken down.

For time immemorial, this had been the general status quo of the world - even as technology improved, allowing for stronger weaponry yields and more effecient Dust usage, the Grimm gained strength as they lived on, learning from prior encounters and becoming smarter. For quite some time, this was the stalemate...

But what many had yet to grasp was that for all of the unprecedented peace outwardly shown, tensions were bubbling beneath the surface, long-running plans were falling into place...

Yet at the same time... even the grandest, longest-running of plans can be unceremoniously thrown into turmoil. All it could take is one element going unaccounted for, one loose piece in the grand scheme, and it all falls apart.

**Vale Police Station, 9:21 A.M.**

Working their way to an interrogation room was perhaps one of the oddest quartets to ever grace the halls of the station. What made this proceeding even stranger was the timeframe in which this was taking place.

Leading the way was a tall gentleman, easily around 6'6", with silver-tinted hair. He was clad in an olive-colored suit with matching pants, and had a cane in one hand. His other hand was occupied in holding a decorated coffee mug, the contents of which were rumored to change from time to time.

Following him was a blonde woman, only an inch shorter in stature, in a white, long-sleeved pleated top matched with a black, high-waisted pencil skirt. Her heels could be heard clacking down the hallway behind him.

The third member of this group was another man in a white suit overtop a black sweater, a white glove over his right hand. He easily stood at an equal height to the one in green. Oddly, there was a piece of metal above his right eyebrow, and his black hair was slowly greying along the sides. Noticably, he was holding onto a small box, within which lay two gilded gauntlets and a square-barreled white hand gun.

Following behind the former two, and in front of the latter man, was perhaps the most striking member of this group. He easily towered over the group, standing at least seven feet tall, with untamed brown hair. His duster jacket, a dark grey in color, was worn overtop a dark green muscle shirt, and camo-patterned pants completed his ensemble. An eyepatch lay over his left eye.

The silver-haired gentleman in green opened one of the interrogation rooms, motioning for the brunette to enter first. He did so, taking a seat at one end of the table. The other three soon took the other end, the silver-haired man taking the chair as his two associates merely stood to his sides.

"Now then..." The silver-haired man was the first to speak. "Before we begin, I believe proper introductions are in order." With a slight tilt of his head, he indicated for the other party to speak.

The brunette cast his orange-eyed gaze over to the other two people in the room. The blonde woman had an impassive gaze on him, green eyes trying to read his surface thoughts. The man in white, by contrast, had his arms crossed over his chest, a look of internal self-argument across his face.

"Fair enough." He spoke with a deep, almost rumbling sort of voice. "Name's Nelius Raoul."

"Very well, Mr. Raoul. I am Ozpin, Headmaster of Beacon Academy." He tilted his head to his right, indicating the blonde woman. "This is Glynda Goodwitch, my Headmistress..." He then did the same to his left, and towards the other man. "And this is James Ironwood, the Atlas Academy Headmaster."

"Let's not forget General of Atlas' Special Forces and Military." Ironwood added.

Nelius simply nodded, having nothing to say on the matter. Ozpin cleared his throat before speaking once more.

"To business, then... I've resided here in Vale for a long time, seeing many people filter in and out. That said, for someone that hasn't shown up on any registry within any of the Kingdoms, the simple fact that you've managed to do so much would be cause for alarm."

To that end, Glynda tapped at something on a black-colored device in her hands, one that Nelius recognized as a Scroll. The screen was transparent enough that he could see what information she was bringing up. From what he was able to see, most of it was information pertaining to him, if the sight of a mirrored mugshot was anything to go by. He could see mostly physical stats on him, but there wasn't much else filled in. Below that, though, looked to be a comprehensive list of times and places he had been sighted at.

"Won't you tell us how you managed to stay under the radar for so long?" To this, Raoul reclined back in his chair slightly, the sound of his spine making a pop or two filling the room for a second.

"Fair warning... it's a bit of a long story."

Ozpin glanced over to a nearby clock. The time read 9:28 A.M.

"We have time. Start from the very beginning, if you'd be so kind, and spare no details."

"As you wish. About nine months back or so..."

**Nine months prior; Central Sanus Continent, 8:40 A.M.**

A small trace of electricity could be seen arcing across the plains that lay between the two major cities on this continent, yet there was hardly a cloud in the sky around this region. The sparks of electricity picked up in intensity, the very color of the bolts shifting at random. With one loud crack, something that looked like a portal into a realm unknown split open for just a second, long enough to shove something or someone through before closing again. Had anyone been present at this unusual event, a stray blink of the eyes would've been more than long enough to miss it all.

Harshly impacting the ground and skidding for a good few feet before coming to a dead stop was what appeared to be a person. If one were to take a good look at this supposed person, they'd likely give this individual a wide berth, and with good reason... discounting their choice of wardrobe, consisting of a slightly torn brown duster jacket, a black "Zabel Zarock World Tour" t-shirt, camo-patterned cargo pants, and heavy black boots, this individual had to have stood at least seven feet tall, and had a physique implying decades of physical activity. Of course, we'd be remiss to dismiss the armaments that could be seen across this character - a large dual-headed axe was holstered across the back of their jacket, and on their hands rested two gilded gauntlets. A white handgun with the vaguest shape of a cross was holstered beneath the jacket.

"Ugggh... not again..." Swiftly regaining consciousness, the individual got to their feet, taking a moment to brush some wild brown hair out of their field of vision, revealing the tanned countenance of a man. As he did a quick check to ensure his weaponry was in its proper place, his right eye, colored orange, glanced out at this unfamiliar landscape, his left eye covered beneath an eyepatch. A moment passed as he took in this new information, bringing his left hand up to the side of his head, near where his left ear would be, were it not hidden beneath the wild mane.

'_Mita, do you read me?_' Silence answered him for the next several seconds. '_Atreya, Carl, you there?_' More silence. '_Shit, have I been knocked out of communications range? Or is there interference?_' Frowning as he didn't get any response from his impromptu team members, he decided it was time to get a better view. He reached back and grabbed a portion of his jacket, lifting it up to expose his back. From beneath his shirt, two large dark green wings emerged through it, each one wide enough to comfortably wrap around him like a shield. He gave them a few experimental flaps to check for any damage, and was relatively pleased to see they were good for liftoff.

With a strong flap of his wings, he took to the sky, looking over his landing area.

'_...this definitely isn't the world I was on before..._' As he processed this, he realized - that warp had been right at the tail end of everyone fighting for their lives. His thoughts immediately turned towards the potential status of everyone else... he was more than aware that they had survived on that world long before he had shown up by accident, but that last battle was nothing to joke about. With their transport off that world having been caught relatively close to the crossfire, he was hoping that it wasn't damaged too badly. '_Before I start worrying too much about them, I need to figure out where I am. Depending on what I have to work with, I should be able to contact them, get an update on how things are with them._'

From his vantage point several thousands of feet skyward, he surveyed his surroundings. To his immediate right and away from what seemed to be a vast ocean, he could see an expansive desert quite a few miles away, and if his eyesight wasn't fooling him there seemed to be some buildings that he could faintly see. Rotating around to look behind him, there was a small stretch of mountains, and from what he could vaguely sense there were a few signs of life, both in the desert and beyond the mountain range, though the further option had far more signs. Whilst the desert was closer, more people would mean a higher chance of cities or towns, which would have to lead towards some kind of records office or library.

Normally at this point, one would expect him to immediately begin flying straight over, but prior experiences told him to land first and not spook the locals. There was no telling if people here would be used to seeing others fly about with wings on their back. Best to err on the side of caution - about the last thing he needed was someone, somehow catching him mid-flight and causing an incident.

Touching back down on solid ground and letting his wings retract into his back, he began his trek past the mountain range, to see if there was anyone out there. Flaring his senses up a bit, he could indeed feel signs of life much further ahead, but at the same time another part of his brain was telling him that he was being watched. Moving his left hand up to grasp the handle of his axe, he kept his eye open and moving about as he continued forth. As he moved further north, he could feel it getting slightly colder before the sun starting warming things up, and if the colors of the trees were an indicator, it had to be mid to late autumn right now.

**Northern Sanus Continent, 11:34 A.M.**

The cautious part of his mind was on the money about being watched - it had only been about half an hour of walking forth into some woods, and trying to formulate a plan of getting back to his allies, that he heard something like a wolf's howl off in the distance. Thinking nothing of it, he continued on, and it was about ten minutes later that the howl sounded again, but it was much closer. He was going to ignore it again, but something darted into view.

It was a bipedal wolf-like creature, which would explain the howling, but its fur, assuming it had any, was pitch black. It had bleached white bone plates on its face and along various parts of its body. Some of these plates had blood red markings adorning them, and a pair of menacing yellow eyes looked right at him. And joy of joys, it seems this one had a few packmates - about seven visible, potentially more waiting in the wings.

Also was it just him seeing things, or did these creatures seem to be emitting some kind of black vapor?

'_OK, these are new._' The obsidian lupines stared him down for a moment, as if trying to ascertain just what he was. About twenty seconds later, they had decided to go on the offensive. The closest one quickly reached out with its right paw in an attempt to slash him, but he quickly jumped back. Two others tried to close in on him via flanking. His right hand reached behind himself, withdrawing the white gun from its holster, and fired at the obsidian lupines after taking a moment to aim.

The bullets flew forth from his gun, striking against the bone plates. A few shots glanced off as some of the wolves moved to dodge, leaving some dents and a few cracks as proof of their contact, but others found their marks, right into the creatures' eyes. Their earlier growls turned to shouts of pain as the ones that didn't have parts of their heads blown clean off found themselves partially blinded. Such a maneuver had only made them even more resolute to bring death upon this character. Had he been paying attention to the fallen, he'd have seen something happen with their bodies.

With the decision to switch tactics, his left hand brought the axe out to play. Roughly five feet in length from pommel to tip, the main axehead was about 27 inches across, around two inches thick, and had a decorative look to it, gilded in a golden color and adorned with a few gemstones near its center, several spikes spaced along its blades. One would be forgiven for thinking that it looked more like a trophy than a weapon of war, and in fairness, it had been originally a decoration before dire circumstances arose.

The wolves swung their claws with fury, angered at how this being so casually blinded them. The axehead showed its durability well by blocking several of the swings, leaving its wielder enough time to fire more bullets into their eyes. With their field of vision severely limited, now was a good time for him to finish things up.

Holstering his gun, he gripped the axe's handle tightly with his dominant hand as he gave a mighty swing sideways. The facial plate of the nearest wolf split open with a downright chilling sound of bone finely splintering into nothingness, the creature giving a shrill... scream? Shout? Whatever it was, it sent a clear message of being in intense pain... for about one-thousandth of a second as the axe continued to travel through its head and exit out through the other side, effectively chopping the wolf's head off at the jawline.

The creature hit the ground after gravity took over and its muscles no longer had the strength to stand... and began dissolving away into more of that mist matching the color of its presumed fur.

'_The hell?_' He would have started to mull over this information, but the angered growls of the other wolves reminded him to fight now and think on that later.

Deciding to take a different approach, he held his free hand out. For several seconds, nothing happened, and his opposition took the gesture as a dare to approach. That quickly proved a mistake on the forward ones' part, as once they had gotten close enough, dirt-coated icicles erupted from beneath them, spearing them through their unguarded undersides and causing some serious damage, if it didn't outright kill some of the wolves.

'_That took a bit long to execute. Does this world have insufficient magical power to draw from? Or is there something here that-_' One of the wolves reminded him to quit lollygagging and finish off these beasts, namely by trying to tear his throat out with its teeth.

Switching to a reverse-handed grip on the axe, he blocked the attempted bite from the closest wolf by using his free hand to grab the snout of the one that tried to bite him. Now alarmed, it tried to pull itself free of the grip or attack him, but it was for naught. One quick swing of the axe and the head came right off, the body it was formerly attached to dropping to the ground and dissolving once more. The head soon followed suit, dissolving away in his grasp. Even the bony protrusions and facial plates left with the creature - one would imagine they'd have been left behind, as proof of the kill. Perhaps they should be ripped off before the creature's demise?

Seeing several of their pack get effortlessly taken out incensed the remaining wolves even further. Caution was thrown to the wind as they descended upon the unusually tall man. Using his axe as a shield once more, he blocked several more swipes before countering with a horizontal swing. This swing bisected two of the wolves at their wasits in a single go, and as he let the momentum of the swing go into a swift holstering across his back, he unholstered his gun once more and fired at the third remaining wolf, catching it right in its snout. As the wolf was trying to either dig out the bullet or cover up the gunshot wound, he reholstered his firearm, striding over.

He gave his arms a quick shake, loosening his jacket's sleeves. It was time for his gauntlets to come into play. Originally a gift from his father, they had been technologically modified in another venture, though those same modifications got disabled after a particularly heated battle, as shown by the gashes across the gauntlets' palms, exposing thin, but relatively new circuitry. Maybe if this world had sufficient technological prowess, he could get those old features repaired... but that's for another time.

Rearing his right fist back, he let it fly right into the bipedal wolf's face, right where he'd shot it. His fist met snout and bone plate, the latter two giving way under the blow. The plate cracked apart as his fist seemed to go straight through the wolf's cranial structure like a meteoroid through a mountain. There was now nothing more than an empty hole taking up the majority of its head.

He removed his fist from the creature's head (or what remained of it) and watched as the bipedal lupine slumped to the ground, dissolving away like the rest of its deceased packmates.

With the wolf pack gone, the tall man immediately began scanning the surrounding area, looking for any other threats. If they had more packmates, they'd be showing up any moment now... any moment now...

'_Is that all of them?_' Keeping at the ready, he continued forth. '_What manner of creature were those? They looked and acted like wolves, but they dissolve away into nothing when killed? Is everything here like that?_' Either way, it seemed like there weren't any more of them, so it's time to continue on.

Deciding to pick up the pace, he took off into a speedy jog north, through the trees.

**Vale Agricultural District, 1:54 P.M.**

With a forward flip, he drove the heel of his boot into the cranium of another one of those obsidian lupines, forcing it down into the ground, where the combined impact made its head burst open like a crushed fruit, killing it. As it dissolved away, he continued on his path northward, soon arriving at what looked to be a bunch of farmlands.

If one had ever passed by a farm out in the country, they'd see the usual kinda things - barns, machinery, animals, people tending to the aforementioned... only here it seems that there were several close together. Paved roads lined by split-rail fences cordoned off each of these farms.

From his current position, he could see a few people peddling wares off to his right. From the look of things, it was either home-grown produce or handmade objects, not much he could use right now. He continued on.

A few signposts had directions carved into them, the arrow pointing which road to take to get where you needed to go. One signpost, leading off to the right, mentioned a "Vale Residential District". Its neighbor was pointed directly ahead, and mentioned a "Vale Industrial District".

He took the road to the right, and contined onward. A few people gave him a worrying look, namely due to the fact they'd never seen him before, but he ignored it as he headed down the road. Sure enough, as he looked forward, he could see buildings of a much different make and model.

**Vale Residential District, 2:21 P.M.**

Now entering into the residential district of this "Vale" place, the tall individual took a moment to glance around.

A sharp contrast to the district he'd walked through, here he saw high-rise buildings and automobiles lining the streets. There were plenty of people walking about, though he could see the occasional one carrying weaponry as well.

'_No doubt to battle against those strange, shadowy-creatures._' Keeping mainly to himself, he walked along, his gaze largely on the street signs - one of them had to lead towards some kind of public library or records office. With next to no information about this world, it was best to go under the radar and gather intel on what he had to work with. Knowledge of whatever kind of technological advances were present would also aid him in this situation.

Much like before, a few people on the streets did give him looks ranging from worry to confusion, some even deciding to give him a wide berth. As far as he was able to tell, the inhabitants of this area were human, yet at the same time, he swore he saw the occasional one having decidedly non-human appendages.

Roughly an hour and a half of wandering later, he crossed a bridge over a wide river, and found himself in the Commerical District. Up and down the various streets he traveled, his eyes checking over the different structures.

'_From Dust Till Dawn... looks like a jewelery shop, if the window exhibits are an indication. Says it has some books, though I don't know if they'd help me currently._' He moved on.

'_Some kind of superstore, I'm guessing. Tempting, but I doubt I have any local currency... and five-finger discounts were more Sif's thing._' The scent of something good crossed his nose as he checked out another location nearby.

'_A restaurant, most likely. Come to think of it, what kind of cuisine does this world have? They appeared to have regular livestock and crops, if those people trading were an indication..._'

So engrossed was he in his search that he hadn't really noticed the gradual filtering out of people as the day came to a close, the sun dipping out of view. It was only through several of the main street shops displaying "Closed" signs that snapped him out of his search.

'_Night already-_' He looked skyward, and got his confirmation, albeit with some level of confusion mixed in. '_The hell happened to the damn moon?!_'

The moon looked... shattered, as if something had blown through half of it. Multiple chunks were trailing behind it, as if the will of some higher power was keeping those pieces from descending onto the world. Did someone try detonating the moon in the past? Was this a result of a gigantic meteor or something like it slamming into the moon?

He got cut off by the sound of a low growl, one that was very close. He looked around for a moment, only to hear the growl a bit more loudly... and a bit closer. '_Oh... right, haven't had a decent meal yet, and with how late it is..._'

Now came the question of what to do next. Here he was, once again in a new world completely alien to him. No currency with which to get food, those shadowy creatures dissolved on death, so they likely couldn't be consumed, so hunting them down was off the list, he was far outside of communications range with his allies, so no requesting a pick-up...

'_Hrm... not the first time this has happened. First thing's first, though..._' Making certain that everything was in place, he stalked off to look for a suitable place to rest for the night. If there had been anything he'd learned from his prior excursions, it was that even a bustling city such as this had to have its spots of relative unimportance, where the residents generally wouldn't head to. There had to be some abandoned locales here or there that would suffice as a base of operations... it'd help him in getting back in contact with his allies.

It was a turn down another street that brought him into the northern part of the Industrial District, signified by a bunch of warehouses, ones easily large enough to store multiple vehicles in. Certainly one of them had to be empty - might be a bit too much space, but if it had four walls and a ceiling, it'd do for the time being.

With nothing left to lose, he headed over to give the warehouses a look over. If one was empty, then he could slip in and get some sleep. Slowly down the line he moved, checking to see if any were empty or if someone was careless enough to leave one unlocked...

Nope, seems this one had heavy machinery going...

This one was a bust as well. Its doors were already open, and the voices of people could be heard inside.

Another one was tightly locked up.

Jackpot! This one, marked with the number of 29, was open. He quickly slid the door open and slipped in, closing the door behind him. Dunno who'd leave it open, but he wasn't going to argue it.

The interior was incredibly, and obviously, spacious. There was a metal stairwell leading up to a second floor railing, and aside from some upper-floor windows, the place looked like it hadn't been used in a good while. Those with a discerning eye would notice a very light amount of dust here and there.

Heading up to the second-floor railing, he decided this would suffice as a place to sleep, uncomfortable as it might be. Removing his weaponry, he set them to the side as he then removed and folded his jacket up, to serve as a makeshift pillow.

As he allowed his wings to extend once more and curl around his shoulders, he took a moment to look at his left arm, which didn't match his right. From the elbow on down, which had some light amount of scarring and depigmentation, a light green mass of flesh was intertwined with what natural skin he had, his palm and fingers a deep red color. On the back of his hand, a red-colored eye seemed to stare out at the world.

'_Right, and then there's this..._' Deciding not to dwell upon it any longer, he placed the folded jacket onto the floor, and his head onto the jacket. '_Time to try and get some rest. When the daylight hours return I'll see about getting some food and information. Something around here has to have interstellar communications available..._'

Sleep wouldn't come easy to him, what with his mind so full of information to process.

**Meanwhile...**

Several hours ago, a few people in Vacuo uploaded their own videos of strange, multicolored sparks dancing about just outside the nation's limits. Some people had dismissed the videos as either pranks or some kind of clickbait, assuming that someone had just decided to light up some kind of fireworks either on a lark or to draw the attention of Grimm into some kind of ambush.

Then about an hour later, images came up of a large skidmark dug into the ground. Some naysayers thought it to be someone's attempts of making things up, but found themselves temporarily silenced when it was confirmed that the groove in the ground wasn't made through natural means, and no traces of Dust manipulation in the area. Add in the discovery of some kind of torn-up and burnt cloth and it looked like this was the beginning of some kind of new story.

Did a meteor or something else land here? Maybe it was a piece of the moon? Did someone abscond with the discovery? If someone did make off with the discovery, had the person been waylayed by the Grimm? People were abuzz with questions about this.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 9:37 A.M.**

'_So, it was his entrance into Remnant that the people in Vacuo captured in those videos?_' Ozpin thought back on the videos uploaded all those months ago. Yet at the same time, this story was incredibly far-fetched to even consider humoring, even with everything he had witnessed in his prior years...

"Retractable wings, without being some kind of Faunus?" Ironwood proved ever the skeptic on the matter. The use of ice to impale the Grimm could be passed off as either Dust usage or a Semblance, but this? '_There's also his claim of landing between Vacuo and Vale... to travel from there to Vale on foot would've taken days, potentially a week assuming that Grimm did waylay him, and yet he claimed to have done so in roughly five to six hours?_'

In response to this, Nelius stood up from his chair, scooting it behind him slightly before lifting up that portion of his jacket once more... and two immense, dark green wings suddenly emerged from his back, silencing whatever the General was about to say next. Glynda shared his shocked reaction, but Ozpin proved strangely unflappable.

"Does this prove as sufficient evidence?" The wings relaxed from their flared position, coming to rest at his sides, giving his interrogators enough time to glance them over. Said wings were rather batlike in their appearance, yet if the way they came back up were any indicator, they started a small ways below his shoulderblades.

"I will admit, this does make it a bit difficult to believe otherwise." Ironwood quickly found his cognitive processes and turned his attention to the Beacon Headmaster, whose voice had snapped him from his thoughts.

"Ozpin, are you honestly considering-"

"James. Let us hear out the rest of his tale before we go making conclusions." Ironwood didn't look very happy to hear this from Ozpin, but ultimately relented.

Nelius sat back down, retracting his wings into himself as he did so. Glynda's look of shock disappeared as she tried to put her impassive gaze back on, making note of this development.

"Now, about those wings.."

"I was born with them, yes." This had caught the Vale Headmaster's attention.

"Are others where you're from also born with wings like those?"

"Some have them, others don't. It generally comes down to the individual. As an example, my parents both have wings, but my aunt doesn't."

"Interesting...would there happen to be a term for those like yourself? As James mentioned, you certainly don't seem to be any sort of Faunus we've seen before, if those wings are any indication." Nelius shifted a bit before answering.

"A lot of people have come up with terms for us, back in our neck of the woods... Fallen Ones, monsters, devils, demons... the last one more or less stuck." That one proved an interesting description.

"I see... no offense, but you certainly don't seem to fit the description of what most would call demons."

"No surprises there. Humans have often had overactive imaginations when it comes to trying to describe things that go bump in the night... no offense to our present company, of course."

"Anyway, shall we continue on?"

'_Ozpin should be taking this more seriously. Other worlds? Demons? True, those wings certainly didn't appear to be constructs, and no Faunus I've met has wings such as those, but to claim the ability to use magic, like they do?_' Ironwood kept his outward neutral expression, but his mind was racing about internally. '_We'll see how well this story holds up._'

"When I woke up the next morning..."

Chapter 1- Complete


	2. Chapter 2

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'  
**Line Breaks**

Chapter 2: New Awakenings

A new day brought forth new opportunities. For the out of place wanderer, after waking up and taking time to don his usual apparel, he made a mental checklist of goals for today.

Today's goals were to find whatever passed for a cental information hub, maybe a library or somesuch, learn more about wherever it is he landed, and if the circumstances allowed for it, acquire some of the local currency and some supplies.

'_Though, if I'm going to be headed to a library or such, they might frown on someone walking in armed to the teeth with visible weaponry. Might want to put these into storage._' Summoning his wings from his back, he wrapped his axe and gun into the right one, sending them away. He pocketed his gauntlets into the inner pockets of his coat, figuring that if he needed them, they'd be readily available. Now came the issue of his left arm - undoubtedly if anyone saw it, it'd give them a mild coronary.

He thought of keeping his left hand pocketed, but sooner or later something might arise that needed his dominant arm. Gloves would potentially do, but he didn't have any spares on-hand to use. Eventually, he settled on using his left wing, transmorphing it to coat his arm and make it look like how it used to, before the incident that resulted in his new transplant. He flexed his fingers a few times as he rotated his wrist around for about five seconds, mainly to test for any issues.

'_Looks and feels solid enough._' With that out of the way, he slipped out of the warehouse and within minutes was back in the city proper. Now was the time to find what he sought.

**Vale Streets, 8:45 A.M.**

Up and down another set of streets he went. Judging from the position of the sun in the sky, it had to be fairly close to 9 in the morning, give or take a few minutes and accounting for the possibility of Daylight Savings, assuming this world practiced such.

As his orange eye flicked back and forth, reading the various shops and other locales seen within this city, he could see the occasional person sending a worried glance his way once again, as if they'd never seen a seven-foot tall guy like him before. He ignored the glances, having had a long time to learn to do so. The words that he could faintly here being murmured, though, were another story. It sounded fairly close to the common languages he knew of, thanks to his various travels, but with the occasional word or phrase mixed in that he couldn't quite decipher. Another thing to research, it would seem.

'_Let's see... no... nope... that's a book store, probably frown upon customers just reading there... no... nuh-uh..._' Seems this avenue didn't hold what he sought. Time to try another.

Heading down another street, he took a moment to observe the people around him. Most of them seemed to be wearing rather casual clothing for this time of year, though he did notice that a few of the people had some electronic device in their hands, which looked to be a multipurpose phone.

'_Wonder what the range is on those..._' Continuing on- '_Aha! Here's the place._' It seemed he finally found one spot on his checklist.

The Vale Public Library, as it was so engraved, looked to be about two stories tall, having been erected circa 75 years ago, and had a remodeling / touchup done about 25 years back. From the small throng of people waiting at the front doors, it seems that it had yet to open.

He took this time to look over the people seeking to enter. On a scant few of them, he could see weaponry - a gun here, a pair of daggers there... a noticable lack of protective armor, though, unless it was hidden beneath their clothing. For that matter, said clothing looked more like uniforms one would wear in a profession or at a school.

'_Guess I'll learn more about any open-carry policies they have here in a moment._' A few minutes later, and the front doors were unlocked, allowing people in. He remained still, watching as people filtered into the building. There were a pair of security guards there, conversing with the weapon carriers and taking a list of what they were carrying. '_Hm, a check-in station. Makes sense._'

Now it was his turn. In he went, and as the guards looked him over, he reached into his coat, withdrawing his gauntlets, to let the guards have a better look at them. There was a deep gash across both palms, exposing destroyed circuitry.

"The parts I requested won't be in for a while. About the best these can do is punch someone." After sating the guards' curiosity, he was allowed in, though asked to not display them openly, so back into the interior pockets they went.

As he headed into the main foyer, the unmistakeable scent of pages and printed ink hit him. If there was something to be found, then this place had to know of it.

'_Where to begin..._' Heading towards the back, it was time to see just what this world had under its belt. On his way to start at the back and work his way forward, he sighted what looked like this world's version of computers. Touch-panel interface with a holographic screen, and it looked to be open-access for searching reference materials. '_And it appears to be in a language I can decipher... History would be a start._'

He went right to work, looking up relevant materials for world history, and used a provided piece of scrap paper and a small pencil to jot down the items he felt were the most useful. Scouring the History section once he finished his work at the computer, he nabbed a few books off the shelf and, after finding a spot to sit down at, began to browse through them.

According to the material, this world he found himself in was called Remnant, and it had been a scant 90 years ago that a massive world war took place, one that spanned a good 10 years, only ending when the King of Vale had shown up and ended the fight with his power alone, the other nations of Mantle, Mistral and Vacuo offering up their crowns to him.

'_Damn, and a human pulled that off, too. Shame about their short lifespans, though... guy sounds like he'd be an interesting one to learn from._'

However, in the eighty years since that time, even with each nation now becoming its own power and having their own governing body, there were still issues at hand, such as the Grimm, soulless creatures with a distinct appetite for humans and Faunus alike. A few telltale descriptions of these Grimm were provided in the texts.

'_Huh, so those obisidian wolves from yesterday were among these Grimm?_' Now wondering more about those odd creatures, he made a quick return to the computer and executed a search, locating a few textbooks on the Grimm within an academic section. A quick summation proved that the textbooks were much earlier prints, but for the moment, it'd do.

The creatures of Grimm had been around since time immemorial, and each one took the form of common human fears and superstitions about wildlife, ranging from wolves, bears and scorpions to killer wasps, aquatic life and even birds. Several sketches and a few images were provided about these Grimm as he continued to read through the provided material.

Repeated encounters with these walking masses of darkness had noted their attraction to the negative emotions of their preferred prey, and the Huntsman Academies in each nation were built to train this world's inhabitants in fighting back against these beasts. These monstrosities had many a mystery surrounding them, such as their biology, assuming they had things like organs and skeletal systems and the like, alongside their origins. Attempts to capture and study them went poorly, as most, if not all, simply died in captivity after some scant amount of time. Of course, as he had learned prior, upon expiring in battle they dissolved away, leaving behind nothing to study.

'_Almost as if they were tailor-made to cull the population..._' He frowned at that thought. What sort of being would create monstrosities that did nothing but destroy? It reminded him a bit too much of the prior world's issues before someone tried to "solve" them, inadvertently making things worse. Shelving the thought, he went to take another look through the computer network. If these creatures were omnipresent, then the native life on this world had to have something that allowed them to fight back effectively, if civilization upon this world had progressed to these times.

A couple of quick searches relating to doing battle against the Grimm soon uncovered something interesting.

Humanity didn't have just their wits and weaponry to curtail the seemingly endless hordes of Grimm. Mining operations had uncovered Dust, nature's wrath in either crystallized or powdered form. With this multicolored wonder of nature providing a wealth of new options, humanity was able to expand further and push the Grimm back. It certainly explained a few of the "Dust for Dummies and other Inadequate Individuals" pamphlets he had seen strewn about several tables.

However, useful as this substance was, allowing for eco-friendly technology to become commonplace alongside new weaponry expansions, it had its limitations, as it was unable to function outside of Remnant's atmosphere, as many failed space exploration attempts would attest to.

'_Dust, huh... so that's what that jewelry shop from before was actually selling?_' He began to wonder... was this Dust a renewable resource? It would have to be, if the majority of it was split between combatting the Grimm and everyday life, otherwise the population's entire fight... no, their existence, would be one of inevitable loss. One passage caught his eye, stating that Dust wasn't just used in weaponry, whether it be directly infused into its components or consumed as bullets or fuel. Several anecdotes made mention of those whom had managed to fuse it into clothing and even directly inject it into their own bodies... though these were lost arts, as a level of impracticality and a health concern respectively caused them to die off.

Noting this for later, as he'd likely be seeing Dust in action as he spent more time in this world, he moved onto looking up reference materials for more recent events... meaning newspapers and locally produced magazines were the target of this search.

A local newspaper dubbed the Vale Times, which he noted was dated for October 4, in the year 79 P.W., had mentioned that the 40th Annual Vytal Festival was to be held here in Vale in next year's upcoming autumn season, and preparations would soon be underway in the coming months. Concerns, however, were being raised about the festival being a potential target of the White Fang, as what had almost happened in Atlas two years prior.

'_A single group causing that kind of alarm?_' Now curious about this group, he made a return to the computer to check out whatever reference materials pertained to this White Fang, assuming this place had any.

Nothing came up on the computer's directory, so he had to thumb through more newspapers and magazines to find the information he sought. It was the far back end of the library that had some answers, as a fair amount of old reference materials tended to drift their way back there.

Caught in the middle of all of this were the Faunus, humanoids with a few animal features here and there, ranging from ears, scales and tails to more subtle traits like retractable claws, wings and other biological implements. More often than not they had only one visible trait.

'_Explains what I thought I saw both yesterday and on my way up here..._'

The Faunus had a shared existence alongside humanity, yet were treated with suspicion and scorn by many due to their exclusive traits. Following the end of the war, they had fought to obtain equal rights as the humans, yet it seems their attempts at gaining equality had mixed results. Several articles showed that while they had obtained citizenship status, a majority of humans within the kingdoms still continued to discriminate against them. Most were content to remain on the island known as Menagerie, though some did try their hands at life in the four kingdoms.

It was due to this increased discrimination that the Faunus right group, the White Fang, had formed. Originally a peaceful protest group lobbying for equal rights, after a change in leadership roughly five years ago, their acts had turned much more violent, and while they had gotten the Faunus the respect and rights they sought, it was more out of fear of retaliation than any sort of actual reform. This change was also signified by the alteration of their sigil. Originally a encircled white wolf's head with an almost melancholy look to it, it was now a blood red wolf's head, eye narrowed and teeth bared, with three slash marks going through it.

Reactions to the White Fang seemed to be mixed, depending on the region. Vacuo, the kingdom which lay to the west amongst a sprawling desert, had a White Fang presence that was essentially nonexistant. Vale, its continental neighbor here on Sanus, was decidedly more mixed on them, having had to deal with a fair number of excursions against the group. Mistral, which lay on the eastern continent of Anima, looked to understand their plight, but not their methods. On the northern continent of Solitas lay Mantle, with Atlas replacing it as the continent's main city. Atlas hated them with a passion, as it seems they'd been at war with the White Fang for quite some time.

'_...what a waste. Discrimination over some minor body parts and other skills? You'd think that with a common enemy, one that doesn't give a crap about who or what you are, social reform would do the world a serious amount of good._'

'_I'm inclined to agree-_' It had taken him a moment to realize that another voice had spoken to him, a feminine voice. He looked around the library-

'_Down here._' -only to have his gaze trail down towards his left hand.

'_Is that... who I think it is?_' Faintly, the outline of a humanoid head could be seen forming right above where the eyeball on the back of his hand would be, if not for the cover his transmorphed wing provided. The only features that could be seen were a pair of red-colored irises and pink-tinted hair. He was rather grateful that he was hidden in the back, lest this raise all sorts of questions from passers-by.

'_Kinda obvious, Mr. Raoul._' The feminine voice replied back. '_I mean, no way would I want to stick around in Mita's computer systems- I might've seen something I couldn't unsee._'

'_You managed to hang on, even through that warp?_' To that, the figure nodded. '_I wasn't even able to sense you at all..._'

'_Yeah, won't lie, was kinda scared for my after-life there for a while. I felt myself getting seperated, but I was able to cling on, so to speak. Knocked me right out, though._'

'_You seem... oddly calm about it._'

'_Well, when you're honestly dead-dead, things like emotional responses and the like tend to get a bit muted. 'Sides, we got something a bit bigger to deal with._'

'_Indeed. The more I read into things here about this world, this Remnant..._'

'_Not quite what I was going for, though it is duly noted. What's our situation looking like?_'

'_Don't quite know how to respond to that yet._' The one known as Raoul shifted slightly. '_Wherever we are in the cosmos, we're well outside communications range with everyone else. It could make contacing them particularly troublesome, much less finding a way back._'

'_...kinda wish we'd taken up Dimensional Gate lessons from Atreya and Carl._' The faint figure sighed.

'_Hindsight's a regular bitch like that... either way, we're gonna have to establish communications and some manner of forward base, if we're going to be stuck here for a while. Among most of these humans it'd be easy enough to blend in, I just need to keep my wings under wraps... and of course nobody needs to see what this arm really looks like._'

'_Though, if these texts were anything to go by, if they do come up you could try to pass as a Faunus._'

'_I honestly doubt it'd be that easy._' Shelving the reading material back where he had originally gotten it from, he took a moment to stretch his back. '_Regardless, with this information on-hand getting about should be much easier._' Feeling that this was a good stopping point, he began to leave the current section and headed for another. He scanned over the available titles, but didn't see many more that would help at this moment in time. The figure quickly disappeared from view as he headed towards a more populated area of the library in his search for relevant material to read.

'_What makes you say that?_'

'_The more we know about each major nation on this planet, the better we can blend in and get the information we require, alongside knowing where to go to pick up what we need._' It was as he was looking towards the entrance that something crossed his mind. '_Now that I think about it, are there any major functions that you can access, given your current state?_'

'_Not too many at the current moment. That warp kinda scrambled things up - give me a little time to get things sorted out._'

'_All right._' With his companion fading away, he decided it was time to head out. Now that he knew where to go if he needed to look things up, next on the list was getting some food. A quick check on a nearby clock showed that it was close to two in the afternoon.

**Vale City Streets, 2:23 P.M.**

With an information hub now established, Raoul was thinking of finding some local currency.

From what he'd managed to gather, both through his research and some casual observation, Remnant's main currency was known as Lien, and it seemed to come in the form of several color-coded cards. There had been attempts at using paper currency and coins in the past, but with rising technological innovations the decision was made to switch over to currency that proved more than capable of surviving the world and its many dangers. A standard currency also made purchases and trading much less of a hassle, as the need for exchange rates was abolished.

Now came the tricky part - how to acquire some. Without any sort of proper identification he wouldn't be able to work for it, and it's not like the Grimm would dump out a whole bunch upon getting killed.

'_Guess we'll just have to appropriate some off an unlucky schmuck, assuming nobody dropped any._'

'_And how will we do that? I kinda doubt someone would just walk around with a bunch of cash on-hand in broad daylight._' His friend responded back.

'_True, but if there's anything I've learned in my travels, it's that nearly every world has its fair share of criminal activity. Money-hungry fools tend to be dime a dozen, and considering how much higher tech this world is, even with those Grimm-things mulling about..._'

'_...Mr. Raoul, indulge me for a moment. Those Grimm... it was stated that they're drawn to negative emotion, correct?_'

'_Yeah, that's what those texts said. What of it?_'

'_If there is criminal activity going around, then they would have to have learned to keep it low-scale, to avoid drawing too much attention. Otherwise I get the feeling that this city would've been overrun long before we got here._'

'_Hm, that is a fair point. They'd likely either stagger their attempts, or they'd go after something that wouldn't be missed very much. Either way, it might be a better idea to at least get some kind of hideaway established before I go about cracking skulls open. That warehouse is all right, but sooner or later people will start getting suspicious. Yet at the same time, it's not like there's going to be an abandoned luxury penthouse suite._'

'_Either way, it's the best place for now, until we can get a supply base going. There's still too much about this world we don't know yet._'

'_Indeed._' Making a turn onto another street, he continued scoping out the city, mainly to find any points of interest... well, that was the plan, until commotion ahead caught his attention.

In front of what appeared to be a store was a massive group of what looked like Faunus, many of them holding picket signs and sounding very cross with whomever or whatever that shop represented. In all he had counted roughly 30 to 40 individuals within the group, and while he was able to discern some traits, namely ears and a few tails, he wasn't going to get the chance to try and tally them up, as Vale Police had arrived to try and quell the situation. He took a moment to spare a quick glance at the storefront. The first thing that stood out was the large snowflake emblem.

'_Schnee... Dust Company Outlet Store.._' With discretion being the better option, he made for another street, mainly before he could end up getting caught in the potential riot. '_What's got their hackles raised about that shop?_'

'_A good question... and if I can tap into whatever passes for a network in this city, I might be able to get some information for us on the go. Just a bit more unscrambling and we should be good._'

Off he went to scour the city some more.

**Elsewhere...**

For the fourth time that day, someone replayed one of the videos making the rounds throughout the news, of the multi-colored sparks seen just outside Vacuo territory yesterday.

They wanted to dismiss this as a mere prank, to think that someone had too much time on their hands and made a spectacle purely for the hell of it.

But something in the back of their mind told them that this was no mere light show put on by someone that had nothing better to do. This was the end result of something big. Notes were being compiled, differences were being singled out... and one major difference was already apparent as another viewing of the videos was being made.

Something nigh-imperceptible flew into the air, and remained there for several minutes before descending. Only two of the videos had managed to capture this detail...

**Vale Agricultural District, 5:25 P.M.**

Raoul found himself on the far southern edge of the farmlands that he had traveled through yesterday. While a few places of interest were mentally bookmarked during his stroll through the city, it did little to alleviate his current predicaments of no cash. As far as food went, there wasn't much to say on that front either. The sun was already starting its descent into the horizon, giving the likely estimation of it being a fair bit past five in the evening.

"Well, today was a bust." At this declaration, the holo-form from before emerged from his left hand, using a slightly larger projection since they were by themselves. A few more features could be seen, mainly a pair of small red horns that jutted out from her forehead right above each eye, parting some of her hair into a fringe that hung down between them.

"Considering we've only had today to look around, I'd say it's a bit early to call it such."

"Maybe..." He idly rolled his neck, and one could hear a few joints pop.

His companion broke him from his train of thought. "Well, here's some good news. I've managed to unscramble some functions of mine."

"Good news indeed. What all is available for us?"

"Of my original functions, the Usatako Unit is now functioning at full capacity again, which will be quite the boon in long battles. I'm also able to pick up on a wireless signal, but I can't quite patch into it from here - whatever it is, it's in a programming language I'm not familiar with currently. If I had a proxy to work with I might be able to learn more."

"Still, that's a hell of a good start. Anything in your memory files that we could make use of?" It was about ten seconds before she spoke up again.

"Well, when I was last in Mita's systems we had been discussing ways to improve the Item and Soul Divers on board the ship." She disappeared from view, and a 3D image of a machine appeared in her place. It was a small to medium-sized machine, somewhere between the sizes of a shoebox and a standard cardboard box. Its exterior was coated in a dirty white finish. "Their diagnostic files are all within memory, and I do have Atreya's old design here."

"Hm... now you've got me thinking. If sufficient technology exists here that we could replicate Atreya's design, an Item dive would give us all the supplies we'd need."

"The question now is how we get our hands on such technology." The image of the machine dispersed as his companion's visage replaced it. "We're a virtual unknown here, and I get the feeling that this world's technology might not be 1:1 with what we know."

"I know it's a long shot, but it's the best we have right now. There's no satellites, so barring either a freak accident or something else, we can't just toss a message out to our guys and request a pick-up." It was at this moment he thought of them. "Makes me wonder how they're fairing right now."

"You and me both. That said, you think anyone from our side of the cosmos might've landed here, like how our bunch did in the other world?"

"That's a damn good question. We'll have to look into that."

Now was the time to contemplate and figure out their next move. Supplies were a must, and if prior experiences were anything to go off of, a mobile mode of transport would be best. Much as a base of operations would help, one that's planted in a city would eventually get investigated.

With nothing better to do, he wandered off into the wilderness to think this over, as he didn't feel sufficiently tired yet, and figured maybe slaughtering some Grimm would help kick-start his mental synapses.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 9:49 A.M.**

"A companion?" This caught Ironwood's attention. To this, Nelius rolled back his left sleeve after removing the wing-borne coating covering his hand, showing the grafted arm that replaced his flesh and blood original. "What in the world is that?"

"I ended up with this for two reasons... to preserve a life, and preserve knowledge." The eye on the back of his hand glowed slightly, and as he laid his hand down on the table, his companion appeared above the glowing eye. Unlike what had been described in the story, this image of the aforementioned companion was a much clearer one.

"Greetings to you all." Red-colored irises peeked out from behind pink-tinted hair. If one were to assign a skin tone to her, it'd be a standardly fair kind, the sort of skin that remained untouched by the sun. Ironwood had actually moved a bit closer to get a better view of this, a genuine look of surprise on his face.

"This is... Dr. Polendina would be beside himself if he could see this." He could see the look on the scientist's face even now...

"I bet he would, but I believe that could be saved for another time." Ozpin gently reminded the General. "Now then... what came of your excursion?"

"Next up..." Nelius' companion spoke first. "Well, put simply, it was the lynchpin as to why we're still around this Kingdom."

To that, Ozpin merely raised an eyebrow in response.

"Go on." '_I wonder..._'

"So I had headed south to parse out my thoughts..." Nelius began...

Chapter 2- Complete


	3. Chapter 3

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Paragraph Breaks**

Chapter 3: First Strike

It didn't help. At the very least, he did have some targets to focus on eliminating.

Aside from the Beowolves, among his targets today were several Ursai, large Grimm resembling Grizzly Bears, and Creeps, strange reptilian-esque creatures that were bipedal and lacked any sort of forelimbs... think incredibly small Tyrannosaurus Rex - looking Grimm and you'd be fairly close.

Back in a previous world, one where he had lost his eye to one of its stronger beings, its technological levels weren't quite so high, so communications weren't quite so sophisticated. He was able to go under the radar, and in the case of his gauntlets, was able to establish himself as a fairly successful person. Now that got him wondering if people there were still looking for him due to those events, but that was a question for another time, preferably once he managed to learn Dimensional Gate travel.

Here, though, Remnant at minimum had wireless communications that likely stretched out to the other nations if those phones were an indication, so anything he did in one nation would end up being seen by the others. If he were to go about acquiring what he needed, he'd need to play it cautiously.

And the thought his erstwhile friend had brought up still echoed in his mind... could others like himself have touched down here as well? If so, then they had to have kept themselves hidden well, if he wasn't able to sense them out.

'_Say... this whole time we've been at this..._' Raoul's companion spoke up as he cut another few Beowolves in twain with his axe. '_We've been chatting about things, but I notice you've not used my name at all._'

'_Thought you weren't exactly fond of that name, given its connotations._' He leaned back to avoid an Ursa's paw, retaliating by cleaving its arm off with his axe. '_Way I see it, that name was a shackle, meant to hold you to a specific role.'_ He switched to a reverse-grip on his weapon, and with one swing the Ursa was decapitated. _'And besides, AKP-104 Epsilon doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Considering your former captor's dead, who's to stop you from getting a new name, one all your own?_' One good boot to the head ended the life of a Creep as its head was smashed to a pulp.

His companion, Epsilon as she was formerly known, stopped for a moment to think about this. True, her former captor and effective slave-driver had given her that name as a moniker of a weapon, not a person. With them dead, ironically due to their own machinations, there really wasn't much of anything stopping her from taking a new direction.

She would have to think of a new name, one befitting of her new lease on life... well, if they could ever get home and acquire a new body for her. Something to look forward to, at the very least.

One solid punch to its sternum ended the existence of another Beowolf as its internals, or whatever passed for them, were swiftly vaporized.

'_Hey, you said the Usatako was back at full capacity, right?_' One trigger pull made his gun, now set to automatic fire, expel a deadly bullet storm that mulched a group of Creeps, blowing random parts of them clean off their bodies before making them dissolve away.

'_That I did, given it's linked to me. What's up?_'

'_It doesn't feel like it. I mean, there's no vital energies coming from these Grimm. Mind running a double-check, just to be sure?_'

'_Can do, One moment._' She went silent as Raoul continued his Grimm massacre. About two minutes later, as he ripped an Ursa's head cleanly off its shoulders, she replied back. '_You're right. These smoke monsters aren't giving off any sort of vital signs whatsoever. That's why the Usatako's dormant._'

'_It's almost like they're artificial. These things are just weird._' His fist went through a lone Beowolf's head and bone-plating, killing it. With that ones' death, it looked like no more Grimm were showing up in the area.

His companion was going to respond to his comment, but then something caught her attention, a sensation faintly registering upon her still unscrambling sensor array. Right around the same time Raoul felt it too.

'_What the - A magical signature? But I've hardly detected any kind of magical energy since I awoke... something's up about this world._'

'_It's coming from fairly far in that direction. Let's take a look._' He took off running towards the source. If magic existed in this world, then perhaps someone might know of a way to help him return home, if not find his allies. For that matter, if it was someone from his side of the cosmos, then all the better for them.

**The Storm's Eye, unknown time**

Approaching the location where the trace of magic was supposedly felt, Raoul and his companion could see people fighting amidst the violent winds. He could hear thunder rumbling as he got closer, hints of lightning in the darkened clouds above. A nearby tree would have to suffice for cover as he quickly observed the situation, dropping his transmorphed wing so his companion could get a better view through the eye on the back of his left hand.

Levitating in mid-air was a young woman with dark brown hair and light brown skin. She was clad in a white and brown traveler's ensemble, and that magical signature they had felt was coming from her.

'_Is that... literal fire in her eyes?_' Raoul's attention was drawn to the other two, whom the levitating one seemed to be focusing on... though in this case, "focusing on" meant she was trying to drop goddamn lightning on them!

The first of them was a green-haired young woman with dark skin, probably a tone equal to or darker than his own. She had some kind of green spaghetti-strap top on, and long brown rider's pants. In both of her hands were what looked to be long-barrel pistols, though the bottom of the barrels held blades that appeared capable of flipping outwards, probably as a close-range option.

The other was a grey-haired young man in a grey and black ensemble. His pants were burnt away from mid-thigh down, revealing a pair of mechanical prosthetics that started above the knees. They looked surprisingly well-made... seems this world might have sufficiently decent robotics, if this were an indication.

The two on the ground were quickly moving about to dodge the lightning, and considering a bolt of lightning can move incredibly fast in a single second, that said something for their foresight. Then again, this was magical lightning, which could potentially move quicker or slower, depending on a number of factors... there was also the possibility that by the time the levitating one could focus on dropping a bolt there, her two assailants were already prepared to move. As soon as the lightning stopped, the one with the pistols opened fire at the levitating brunette as her cohort fired rounds from his mechanical feet.

Sadly for them, it was for naught. Something invisible to the naked eye, likely one of the brunette's magically based powers, blocked every single projectile, the only proof of their existence being small ripples that flashed into view before disappearing. She brought her left hand out... and as she closed it, a veritable storm of leaves from the myriad trees surrounding the combatants flew off their branches and encircled her. With another left-handed gesture, the leaves froze over, and pointed at the pair of assailants. She let them fly at incredible speed towards the assailing duo.

The green-haired young woman was caught off-guard despites her best efforts to prepare herself, the leaves' frozen edges tearing into her all over as she gave a yelp that was a combination of surprise and pain. Her companion, on the other hand, was much quicker on the draw, and had curled into a ball, letting his prosthetic legs take the brunt of the attack. Metal could take much more punishment than human flesh and bone, after all.

'_Huh, you'd think she'd be getting torn open by that._' Raoul idly thought to himself. Seems the humans here were much hardier than in prior places he'd been to - it'd make sense, what with creatures born of human fears waiting outside the kindgom limits.

'_! Mr. Raoul, it appears a third player has entered the brawl._' His companion, from the eye on the back of his left hand, sighted another person running up. Compared to the earlier two, this woman looked a few years older, clad in a red one-piece dress, with matching long gloves that left her fingers exposed. Short black hair hid her left eye from view.

The brunette quickly launched a fireball at this new adversary, but the red-clad woman leapt over the impact point, her left hand outstretched as she skidded to a halt. The embers combined with the dirt road coalesced into molten glass, then solidified into several hundred dagger-esque obsidian projectiles before she launched them wholesale.

'_How'd she do that?_'

'_Some kind of innate power, if I had to guess._'

Try as she might to defend herself, the brunette was quickly overcome by the hardened daggers, and knocked to the ground. The red-clad woman was closing in pretty quickly, her two followers close behind.

The lady in red had brought out a pair of curved metal swords, and looked intent on doing some bodily harm. The brunette, however, was able to hold her own for a moment, deftly blocking and parrying the blades away despite a lack of protective gear on her arms or hands, and when she sighted an opening, she took it, kicking her assailant away. The prior duo came in, the grey-haired one attempting a running spin-kick that was jumped over, and the green-haired one trying to strike from above with a punch, which was ducked beneath. Grey-hair tried to get in close, but a good boot to the chest followed up with a backwards somersault kick to his chin sent him reeling. Green-hair tried to deck her in the face, but as she was sent back, her ally with the prosthetics came in, a kick aimed for the brunette's face.

Despite the three against one scenario, Raoul took note of the way the duo were fighting the brunette. Whenever one was sent reeling from an attack, they hung back to recover as the other made their assault, giving her little breathing room in which to act, much less form a cohesive plan.

What she couldn't see, however, was the woman in red putting her swords together to create a metallic bow, three arrows already nocked and ready to fire.

As the assailing duo were knocked away once more, the brunette looked behind herself, just in time for the crimson-clad archer to let the arrows loose. They hit the ground nearest the brunette's feet, surrounding her in a triangle formation, and not a second later they exploded, sending her flying backwards as she gave a scream of pain. If one were capable of seeing through the smoke, they'd have seen an odd shimmer across her body.

'_What was that shimmer?_'

'_Defensive mechanism?_'

The trio, thinking they'd won, approached... but as the brunette shakily got to her feet, she proved she wasn't out yet. A powerful wind gust sent them all stumbling back, but the grey-haired one was the first to recover and tried closing the distance... tried being the operative word, as with a gesture the brunette launched a bolt of lightning from her fingertips, catching him squarely in the chest and sending him flying backwards. She then turned around and launched two bolts of fire at the green-haired one.

'_Hm?_' From Raoul's vantage point as he watched this unfold, he could see that the first fireball was several feet off from hitting her opponent. It had to have been a feint, as the second one caught her enemy unaware, sending the green-haired youth sprawling across the dirt road.

Thinking the fight over, the brunette reached down and grabbed her staff, a pair of Dust crystals at both ends. One was red, whilst the other was white. Slowly, she hobbled over to the green-haired one, the red crystal closest to the ground. She raised the staff above her head, intending to strike with the crystal and claim this one's life...

Sadly, she had made a critical error. In her anger at being assaulted out of the blue, she didn't keep a mindful eye on the third assailant. As she moved to potentially finish off the green-haired girl, something hit her back, piercing into her flesh and bone.

The crimson-clad woman shot her in the back with another arrow, and she fell to the ground, her remaining strength gone. The arrow looked to have hit her in the upper section of her spine, right between the shoulderblades.

Grey hair and green hair wasted no time in going over and holding their exhausted victim up by her arms, the crimson-clad one discarding her bow, reaching into a small satchel on the back of her waist, and extracting some kind of white glove, donning it on her right hand. There was a carmine-colored sigil on the back of the glove. She pointed her right palm straight at the captive brunette's head, and a carapaced insect awash in the colors of the Grimm was seen emerging from some kind of mass of smoke, perhaps a portal or somesuch.

'_I've seen all I need to see._' With little time to act, Raoul undid his eyepatch, pocketing it. From within the hollow eyesocket that once contained his left eye, obsidian flames burst out to coat his entire body, starting from the eyesocket and covering his head before quickly moving downwards. He didn't bother waiting for it to completely finish; once the flames had gotten to about his waist he darted out fast enough to render himself invisible to the naked eye, aiming for the crimson-clad woman. By the time he'd arrive it'd finish, anyhow.

The Grimm-colored insect had clicked its mandibles twice, and was preparing to carry out its assigned task.

"Please, no!" The captive begged, her plea falling on deaf ears. Much as she wanted to struggle free, the two assailants had a damn good grip on her, not to mention her own exhaustion from the three on one assault. The woman whom had donned the glove simply smirked, waiting for the insect to do its assigned duty...

So imagine the surprise of everyone when something appeared out of the blue, dropkicking the crimson-clad one somewhere between her lungs and colon! The insect was jerked away from the intended victim's face as the crimson-clad woman was sent violently tumbling away into another thicket of trees, the smirk of victory upon her face turning into a grimace of pain and fury, moreso the former as she felt herself plow through, at minimum, four trees before bouncing off of a last one and leaving a noticable dent in its bark. In that blink and you'd miss it moment, one might have seen a crimson-colored sheen flicker across her body before dissipating as she sailed out of sight.

Grey hair and green hair found themselves somewhere between alarmed and stunned. Some... thing made of black flames appeared out of nowhere and just kicked their boss away like she was made of styrofoam... and now was focusing its munsell-colored eyes on them as it stood to an intimidating height of seven feet, at the very least. They shared a quick look of recognition - whatever this thing is, it wasn't a creature of Grimm, at least one they hadn't ever seen. If they were going to do something, they needed to figure it out, preferably before this thing decided to attack them next.

Their captive proved a mix of shocked and frightened. Had she been saved from the grasp of one kind of Grimm, only to be at the mercy of another? Yet at the same time, why simply kick the woman in red away instead of going for the kill?

Grey hair was the first to act, leaving his cohort to keep hold of their captive after a moment of silent deliberation between the two of them. Despite the earlier battle having winded him a good deal, he had recovered enough to be able to fight. Within a second he had closed the distance and attempted a flying spin-kick, but found himself shocked when the shadowy creature simply grabbed his mechanical foot, stopping the attack cold. He had about a second to realize this before his other foot was swept out from beneath him. One good swing with his trapped foot resulted in him being slammed face-first into the ground, practically eating dirt. He quickly rolled away once able, to prevent himself from being kicked while he was down... a fortunate thing, as one-quarter of a second later the shadowy creature left a small crater where its foot had impacted the ground.

The look on the grey-haired teen's face said it all - that could've been _his_ head. This thing, for whatever reason, was out for blood.

The lady in red returned from her impromptu flight, and she was absolutely livid. With her weapons reclaimed, she threw caution to the wind as she closed the distance and made to lay into the shadow being, blades poised to kill. Her grey-haired understudy had regained his footing, and was immediately on the attack as well. As blade and prosthetic were brought to bear with the intent to murder this interloper, the shadowed one would block with its arms and legs, but then, on occasion, it looked like a pair of wings would emerge from its back and parry several of their attacks. Just what the hell was this thing?

Whilst this two-pronged assault was going on, the green-haired young woman was trying her best to make sense of the situation, all whilst ensuring their captive didn't go anywhere. Keeping a strong grip on the back of her captive's neck, she produced one of her pistols with her free hand and took aim, waiting for an opening and firing whenever she had the chance. Given how much this thing was twisting about and seemingly forming shapes from its body, she didn't have much of an opportunity to see if this thing was even fazed. There was also ensuring that she didn't accidentally shoot her accomplices, as this thing's erratic movement meant that if she fired too early, she'd end up hitting her cohorts.

About ten seconds of fruitless shooting later, she then decided on a new course of action.

A window of opportunity opened up - that thing sent her grey-haired compatriot reeling with a punch to the face, and the crimson-clad woman was nursing a bit of a stomachache, courtesy of the liberal application of a foot to the torso. Sure enough, as she focused upon her target, making it start to see multiple copies of her two companions, it moved backwards, eyes shifting about and body going to a more defensively-oriented lean, giving her allies the moment they needed to move in and attack. Still, she didn't like how this creature looked - it was practically impossible to tell if they were doing any real damage to it.

It was in the middle of trying to block another illusory attack that something clicked for the shadowy one. Something around the attacker's feet didn't add up-

'_Wait, these are... follow my lead!_'

Suddenly, the shadowed one dropped to the ground, her allies' attacks whiffing overhead as it made to trip them! At first, she thought it a lucky dodge, but as the next round of attacks proved, this thing was starting to fight as if her Semblance wasn't affecting it anymore. Dread was starting to creep into her mind, but still, she resumed firing at the thing.

Grabbing a nearby post that had been dislodged from its fence in the previous fight, the shadowed one took to wielding it against his two assailants in a manner reminscient of a bo staff. Blocking both blades from the woman in red, he forced the blades down as he twisted around in an attempt to elbow her in the face. Seeing an incoming sweep, he backflipped over the grey-haired one's outstretched leg and twisted around to deliver his own kick, supposed flesh meeting metal. A fast jab backwards with the post forced the crimson-clad woman to dodge to a side, lest it give her splinters up her nose.

Unfortunately for the green-haired woman, an opening was also what the captive brunette was waiting on. Even with the arrow in her back and a grip around the base of her neck, she could feel a bit of her strength returning. All she needed was one good moment to shock her captor into submission, and then at least get her staff back. All she could hope was for her shadowy savior to keep them occupied long enough to make a getaway.

What nobody here had counted upon or considered was another party observing the fight. This new party had run all this way, a bad feeling in the back of their mind, but the thing wrapped in onyx flames beat them to the punch, delivering more than one shock today. Regardless, with sense returning to the forefront, now would be a really good time to intervene.

Darting out from his hiding spot was an older man, grey and black a large part of his ensemble alongside a tattered red cloak. One large, seemingly segmented blade was holstered behind his waist. He quickly sped over to the fallen brunette and her green-haired captor.

One good shove sent the distracted green-haired girl sprawling, and the new interloper took this moment to take the brunette into his arms before turning in a different direction and hightailing it out of there.

The post in the shadowy one's hands broke in two after an attempted heeldrop from the grey-haired man. Oddly, it didn't show any real signs of damage beforehand, even against two metal blades and a pair of prosthetics... Shrugging, he improvised, using the halves as a pair of beatsticks, parrying the crimson woman's twin blades before using one to give her a good whack across the face. As the one with metallic legs tried to fire at him, he used the broken pieces to block the bullets, and then hurled both of them at him! The first one, aimed for his face, was narrowly dodged by a hair's breadth, but the other one caught him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Barely, something grey was seen shimmering across his body, flickering in and out of view.

'_There it goes again..._'

The crimson-clad woman took a second to back away and assess things before her anger got the better of her, and one of the first things she noticed was her other cohort was only now getting to her feet, and their captive was nowhere in sight. A look of shock crossed her face, turning to fury, and then to sullen realization. It was as the grey-haired one was sent reeling by a vicious kick to the chest that she made her orders known, especially as that grey shimmering flickered even more wildly across his body before fading away.

"Mercury, grab Emerald and let's go..." Just like that, the two quickly backed off, collecting their comrade before leaving.

'_Mercury and Emerald, eh..._' The shadow-flame covered Raoul considered this, before relegating this information to be investigated later. Right now, there was the matter of whomever it was that absconded with the brunette woman. '_Over that way, perhaps?_'

He took off in that direction, slowing down briefly enough to grab the discarded staff.

**Elsewhere...**

"Man, Oz is not gonna like hearing about this."

Qrow Branwen had figured this would be a simple job. All he had to do was check on the status of the Autumn Maiden, Amber, and report back. Even though she was known to be something of a nomad, it should've been easy enough, given that he had worked with her a few times prior.

Then he sees a trio of people somehow in the middle of subduing her, with the one in red summoning some kind of Grimm bug from that glove. And just to make the day even weirder, something wreathed in black flames appears out of thin freaking air to dropkick her away before simultaneously taking on the attackers. Granted, he was happy enough to take the opportunity to get Amber to safety, but she was in bad shape. That arrow would have to be removed, mainly before her Aura could restore itself and begin healing the damage, and potentially healing the skin and muscle over the arrowhead. What made this worse was that the aforementioned arrow was in pretty deep, making removal a painful process regardless of what he did, and of course there was the risk of potential permanent damage with where it had hit. He let loose a sigh, seeing very few good outcomes for this.

"Sorry 'bout this, kid. This is going to suck." He looped a few pieces of string through the small holes in the arrowhead, to give himself more leverage with what he was going to do next. Firmly grasping the arrow's shaft with his right hand, his left keeping a tight grip on the string winding through the arrowhead itself, he counted to three and gave a good yank, pulling the arrow out, along with some skin and blood. Amber bit back a scream of utter pain, her tightly shut eyes already tearing up. Tossing the arrow aside, he quickly applied a few bandages to stem the bleeding until her Aura restored itself and healed up whatever else it could. It'd have to hold until he could get her to a trustworthy medical official.

Well, that was done with. Now came the other problem... Amber was in a fair bit of distress from being attacked out of the blue, and having an arrow extracted from her back wasn't exactly soothing on the nerves. Her whirlwind of emotions would undoubtedly start drawing Grimm their way, and there was also the matter of those three assailants. They could easily decide to come back for round 2, and while he had managed to get a good idea of their fighting styles, there were two factors that could complicate the matter - whatever Semblances they possessed, and ensuring Amber wasn't caught up in the crossfire.

Right on cue, however, as he got Amber to her feet and ready to move on, it seems that quite few Grimm were on their way, no doubt attracted to Amber's distress. Unsheathing his blade with a resigned sigh, he readied himself to take them on.

There were a few Beowolves, multiple Ursai, some Creeps, and he wouldn't discount the possibilities of a Nevermore or some Boarbatusks being alerted to this. Well, this was what he was paid to do, so it was time to get down to business.

As the first of the Grimm closed the distance, something darted out of the trees, cleaving it in two effortlessly. Qrow had his blade ready to combat whatever it was that cut those Grimm down...

"**Hope I'm not interrupting anything.**" It was that shadowy thing again. It could talk?! And did it have Amber's staff?

'_I'm not drunk enough for this._' Qrow just watched as the shadowed one cut the Grimm down. Its claws were ripping through them like a heated knife through room-temperature butter, each swipe and gouge flowing seamlessly into the next.

About less than thirty seconds later, the Grimm were all killed. The shadowed one came to a stop, looking over at Qrow, whom had put his blade to the side, ready to move if he had to. Amber had a look of pure bewilderment on her face, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"**Peace, peace. I'm not here for a fight.**" Its right hand went up, the left still clutching the staff. The absurdity of this whole thing caused Qrow and Amber to share a look of confusion. "**If it'll help I can start with introductions.**"

Qrow quirked an eyebrow at this. Idly, a hand went towards his pants pocket, to grab his favored flask... but then he had a better idea.

"All right... you have a name?"

"**Belderiver. That is the name I bestowed upon this form you see.**"

"Belderiver?" Qrow notably had to take a moment to be sure that was how the name was pronounced. "Never heard that one before."

"**Few would have.**" To that, Qrow bit back a snort.

"Fair enough. I'm Qrow." The hunter sheathed his blade, but kept a wary eye on his guests. "Though why exactly are you here, if you don't mind answering that one?"

"**It concerns your friend there.**" Belderiver nodded its head over to Amber, whom was still recovering from the assault. "**Those three were going to do something with that insect, and I had a gut feeling that it would've been a severe detriment to her health, if not her existence.**"

"Kinda how things go when the Grimm are involved, though to find out she was using something like that..." Qrow thought to how Ozpin would react to this news, but shoved that to the back of his mind. "Anyway, what're you up to?"

"**Aside from trying to get back to my companions?**" Belderiver's tone turned contemplative for a moment. "**Mostly I find myself an unexpected guest to this world, this Remnant... and it's not like I can walk up to a major city and ask about, given my current appearance.**"

"Yeah, going around in half of the Grimm's colors won't win you any fans within the kingdoms. Though what's stopping you from deciding to ditch the flames?"

"**A number of things, but preserving my identity ranks high on that list."** The shadowy being looked around for a quick moment. **"Those three that decided to attack may very well come back for another round. I have the suspicion that remaining here might not be the wisest option.**"

"So what, you're offering to lead us to a place?"

"**The nearest Kingdom's borders, if that'll suffice.**" Qrow glanced over to Amber, whom shared his look of skepticism.

"A moment." Qrow gently pulled Amber aside to get her opinion on the matter. Belderiver nodded and took this time to look around, mainly to ensure that they didn't get ambushed.

"Can we trust him?" To nobody's surprise, Amber was quick to ask. "I was supposed to be headed to Vacuo for a little while."

"I got my Scroll recording this whole exchange." Qrow reassured her, silently pulling the device out of his pants pocket. As Belderiver wasn't looking their way, he silently snapped a few images of the being. "Worst comes to worst Ozpin can have the other kingdoms notified about this guy in a heartbeat... whatever he is."

Amber frowned, but as time wasn't on their side, she slowly agreed to the escort. Qrow walked back over to Belderiver, signaling him to state that an answer had been formed.

"You got yourself a deal." Belderiver nodded, tossing the staff over to Qrow, whom then handed it back to Amber. She wasted no time in extending it to use as a walking aid.

As they prepared to move out, the sound of something cracking caught their attention, and they looked about for any potential interlopers... just in time for a larger tree branch to break off and fall down.

"**...ow.**" Belderiver was the unlucky recipient, the branch shattering into splinters as it collided with his head. Amber bit back an unexpected giggle upon seeing the shadowy being getting struck with the branch.

**On the Road back to Vale**

**Timeframe Unknown**

One of the most awkward trips was underway towards Vale.

As the trio headed back towards the kingdom, Qrow and Belderiver were busy keeping an eye out for any Grimm, or for the reappearance of the three assailants from before. Amber herself was rather quiet as she processed the events that lead up to this. It had only been a few years since she found herself the recipient of these powers as the Autumn Maiden.

She had been sleeping peacefully one night, then out of nowhere a strange, warm feeling overcame her. She had thought nothing of it at the time, but when she awoke that morning to go to a friend's house, the revelation of her new powers was made clear when several Grimm had managed to sneak into her village. One panicked flailing later and one of the Grimm was set ablaze, another one thoroughly electrocuted.

She'd known of both admirers and detractors of her powers since that day, but this was the first time that anyone had ever decided to attack her outright, and from what her two escorts had implied, that bug the woman in red had summoned from that glove would've done something irreversibly horrendous to her... she immediately pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Last thing they needed was more Grimm showing up to say hello.

Once they arrived in Vale, Qrow and she would need to have a serious talk with Ozpin. From what Amber remembered of the man from her infrequent trips into and out of Vale, he was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and had some serious pull with the other kingdoms. If anyone could help clear the air about this whole situation, and perhaps help figure out who it was that attacked her, he would have the best chance of being able to do so. In fact, it had been Ozpin whom had taken notice of her odd, new powers, and offered to help her in exercising a more finite control over them, as he had mentioned having seen something like this a far time ago. Ultimately, she had wavered on the offer, keeping it in mind but not yet accepting.

"So you said you had pals?" Qrow had decided to press Belderiver for information, mainly to see if there were any extra details he could get from the gigantic thing made of shadow-fire.

"**Counting myself, there had been 24 of us. We had been scattered across many a destination, but it was a common cause of returning to where we called home that brought us together.**" Belderiver replied, still keeping a vigil for any interlopers. "**Unfortunately, what should have been our trip home was delayed by the emergence of a new enemy, someone whom didn't like our interference, despite us being unwilling guests.**"

"And it was this new enemy that sent you on a one-way trip to here?" Qrow had a bit of a skeptical tone with his question, one that more broached on the idea of trying to make sense of the conversation.

"**More like it was their last-ditch effort to take us down with them**." So this thing had pals, and if his fight against the trio from before was an indicator, they had to have been as skilled as he was. Yet he said that he was looking for a way back to find them, which at face value would imply a lack of a reason to stick around on Remnant.

Either way, the more Qrow could get from this guy, the better. Though, to imply that he was some sort of alien... he knew quite a few eggheads in Atlas that would be foaming at the mouth for the chance to examine him under one of their hi-tech gadgets.

"Suppose you find your way back to 'em. What then?"

"**Mostly I get an update on how things went, then I imagine we go our seperate ways. We all had our own lives to attend to beforehand.**"

"That's it? They wouldn't stick around?"

"**It'd be up to them, honestly - we'd all come from different walks of life.**"

Amber, whom had been silently listening to this back and forth, looked ahead. Vale's borders couldn't arrive any sooner, so this awkward situation could finally end. Her wish was soon granted, as the edge of Vale's agricultural district was soon seen ahead.

"**Will this suffice, or should I bring you closer?**" Qrow looked over to Amber, a silent decision made between them.

"This'll do. I know a guy who can give us a lift the rest of the way... and besides, don't want to give any of them a heart attack if they caught sight of you."

"**A fair point. Hopefully if we meet again, it'll be under less... chaotic circumstances.**"

"Sounds good." The two turned to say thanks, only to find that Belderiver was gone without a trace. No footprints, no trail... Qrow had reached into his pants pocket, to pull out his usual flask - after something as bizarre as today, a drink sounded really damn good, yet at the same time... probably better to wait.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room. 10:03 A.M.**

"You?!" Ironwood was doing a fair job hiding his disbelief. "_You_ were that Belderiver character that saved the Autumn Maiden?"

In response, Nelius reached back beneath his mane of brown hair, undoing the tie that held his eyepatch to his head. As it fell away, the empty eyesocket could be seen by everyone in the room, traces of obsidian flame silently wisping out of it. The only thing that dwelled within it was but a tiny orange dot. Ozpin kept his poker face going, though Ironwood had to keep himself from taking a step back in shock. Glynda was doing her best to keep a straight face, but this... this was proving something far beyond anything she'd have ever imagined, and having worked at Beacon for a fair amount of time, she had encountered her fair share of oddities.

For a brief moment, he let the obsidian flames cover himself, Belderiver emerging once more. As the otherworldly being emerged, the three interrogators felt the air growing uncomfortably heavy and thin at the same time.

"**I hope this also suffices as sufficient evidence, General.**" Belderiver faded away as Nelius reapplied his eyepatch, the suppressing feeling disappearing with it. "There's much more than just coating myself in flames, but those details would take up a fair bit of time."

"Then by all means, do continue on." Ozpin had taken a moment to collect his bearings. "Knowing that it was you whom saved the Autumn Maiden, and caught a glimpse of whom was attempting to claim her life..."

"Before which, Headmaster..." Glynda, whom seemed to have found her voice again, had been using her Scroll to look up the characters described by Nelius' exposition on his escapades prior to today. Finding the three in question, she flipped the Scroll around to face the brunette. "Are these three the ones you saw?"

Nelius took a look at the Scroll's readout.

"Cinder Fall, Emerald... Sustrai? (_Is that how you pronounce it?_) And Mercury Black... Without a doubt, that's the trio that attacked her."

This information got Ozpin to drop his poker face. Those three had come here from Haven Academy... on Leonardo's input, no less.

"James..." Ozpin spoke up after a moment of contemplating. "You had mentioned before that Lionheart had been unusually quiet as of late."

"That I did. You believe there is a relation here?"

"These three... Fall, Sustrai, and Black... they came to Beacon with Leonardo's good graces backing them." At this, Ironwood began to piece two and two together. "Whatever is happening with Haven's Headmaster, these three must have been part of his recent silence."

"...somedays I dislike having my suspicions confirmed." Ironwood sighed, before turning his attention back to Nelius. "You did cross their paths again, I take it?"

"Not for a few months after that, though certainly not from a lack of trying. In fact, the next time I saw that one called Cinder..."

Ozpin's mind, however, was thinking about the Grimm-colored insect that both Raoul and Amber had testified about seeing. It solidified a suspicion in his mind.

'_This Cinder... she must be working for her..._' As he dwelled upon this, a realization hit him. Amber had been doing some work in Anima before crossing back over to Sanus to head down towards Vacuo. Leonardo would've been the last one to know of her movements...

Chapter 3- Complete


	4. Chapter 4

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Transitions**

Chapter 4: Time and Consequence

Back at their temporary base of operations, Mercury winced as he dressed his wounds from the earlier battle, if it could even be called such. Whatever that thing was, it hit him hard enough that even his Aura had trouble keeping together. He definitely had several bruises from the hits he took before his Aura began to falter. If another encounter with that thing was in the forseeable future, then they'd need to plan for it - yet at the same time, if it could bruise him through his Aura, then what could it do had it managed to shatter his? For that matter, that thing came damn close to shattering it with less than five blows... he hated this feeling of being powerless against another person. It reminded him a bit too much of his former home...

Emerald, having been tasked with keeping a hold of their captive, had gotten away with relatively less physical injury, but was dreading the prospect of having to explain to her boss about how she let her guard down long enough to allow someone else to abscond with the Autumn Maiden.

However, something else was on her mind, namely how that shadow-thing seemed to throw off her Semblance - it was undoubtedly affected for a good amount of time, so it couldn't have been a machine in any way, but so long as her concentration wasn't broken, it shouldn't have worn off so soon. The telltale signs of a migraine hadn't set in, so there wasn't another target that caused her concentration to split, and she definitely hadn't run out of Aura, so that was out of the question...what was she missing?

"Emerald..." A familiar voice called to her, and she got to her feet in a quick hurry.

"Cinder!" The woman in red had a contemplative look on her face, as if wondering the same things.

"Have you finished recovering?"

"I'm fine, but what about you - I mean, that thing kicked you hard enough to-"

"As you can see, I'm still in one piece." There was a certain... playfulness to Cinder's vocal tone. "Despite our... setback.." That was soon replaced by a certain kind of venom, one that made Emerald wince internally, "..we can still make our plan work. We'll need to have Taurus on our side for the next phase to go through."

"How, though? We already tried to-" Emerald was uncharacteristically silenced by Cinder placing a finger onto the thief's lips.

"You need not worry about that. Just obey." A very light pink dusting could be seen across Emerald's cheeks, and as Cinder removed her finger, the green-haired girl didn't argue any further.

**Over in Vale, 8:54 P.M.**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

Qrow and Amber, after making it a bit further into Vale's residential district, had taken a quick Bullhead over to Beacon Academy. He'd sent Ozpin a message ahead of time, letting the headmaster know of their arrival, despite how late it was getting. Then again, said Bullhead had a slight problem with its lift engines, needing a bit of cleaning before properly taking off.

The ride over was a quiet one; as Amber stared out the window, her mind replaying the events of the last few hours, Qrow had an eye on his Scroll, mostly waiting for a reply back from Ozpin, or at least one from his assistant that let him know they were expecting him. It was about three minutes after takeoff that Beacon Academy could be seen coming into view, its telltale spires and architecture looking more like a castle from the olden days than what one would imagine an academy to look like.

'_Swear that Oz must live here..._'

Anyone whom were to casually see Beacon at this point in time would take note of how quiet the campus seemed to be. Aside from how late it was, the current semester was soon approaching its end within the next month or so, and as the fourth-year students would graduate and move onto working in other locales, there would be an influx of first-year applicants. As that particular thought crossed his mind, he remembered that his older niece, despite her reckless tendencies and short temper, had plans to send in her papers to this academy, and his younger niece was planning on attending once she finished her current schooling at Signal. Feelings on that were decidedly mixed, but he put those to the back of his mind for now.

The Bullhead landed, and the pair were off to the Academy - more specificially, the tallest tower, where Ozpin's office was located. The elevator was located as they passed by a few students, a few of which recognized Qrow and greeted him rather fondly, and up they went. An uncomfortable silence passed over the pair as the elevator car ascended. For a second or two, it seemed like the car had stopped, but eventually made its way up.

When it finally arrived, the duo stepped into Ozpin's office. It always felt like walking into the interior of an immense clock every time he visited.

"Qrow. Good to see you've made it." And there was the man of the hour. The silver-haired Headmaster of Beacon wasn't seated in his chair, as he usually was, but that unmistakeable olive-colored outfit of his stood out. Evan after all this time that Qrow had been working with Beacon's Headmaster, he still couldn't help but wonder if Ozpin ever had any other suits. "And Miss Amber, quite the relief to see you in one piece. When I received your message earlier..." He was uncharacteristically cut off by the drunkard raising his hand, in the manner that asked for silence.

"Believe me, Oz, that earlier alert wouldn't do this explaination any justice." Qrow withdrew his Scroll from his coat pocket and opened it into its phone-like form. He selected the audio-only recording, and had it play, only doing a few skips here and there to get to the real meat of the recording. As the conversations with Belderiver played out, from the slaughter of the Grimm all the way to the unorthodox escort back to Vale's borders, Ozpin had an outward neutral expression, but his inward thoughts were moving about at a chaotic pace. This being seemed honest enough, but to call itself an unwilling guest to Remnant...

Up next were the images captured of Belderiver, as Qrow pulled his Scroll into its tablet-form. Ozpin kept his neutral expression as he flipped through the pictures, but inwardly he knew something didn't add up... something cloaked in half the colors of the Grimm, appearing as though it were made of living obsidian flame, but at the same time was humanoid and had the capacity for intellect, not to mention that the Grimm had also seen it as a target. Yet it had clearly stated that it wouldn't reveal its true self, as preserving its identity was of high priority.

"So his appearance was some manner of Semblance?" Ozpin finally asked after a tense moment of silence, catching Qrow's attention. "If what this Belderiver said is true, and this is a large if we're talking, then his appearance may be a disguise. I've no doubt he'll attempt to go to ground, to try and blend in, but as we have access to the records of the people in the kingdoms..."

"We look for what isn't there." Qrow answered, getting a knowing look from Ozpin. Belderiver was an honest sort, a bit too honest in this case.

"Headmaster Ozpin..." Amber finally spoke up, after taking her time in processing the last few hours. "I was supposed to be on my way to Vacuo to help out there..."

"If you still wish to head out that way, I can arrange for transportation out to Vacuo. Given what has recently transpired, I would have to suggest meeting with our Academy Nurse, as a precaution."

Amber wasn't going to argue that point; getting her Aura broken by several explosive arrows, and then having an arrow shot into her back wasn't exactly a good time.

**Around the same time...**

With Qrow and Amber a long way away, Raoul let his transformation drop, and Belderiver soon receded away, the flames dispersing back into his left eye socket. The munsell glow in his eye darkened back to orange as he reapplied his eyepatch. If anyone were around to see the eyesocket that once housed his left eye, they'd see a small orange dot floating within it.

'_So magic does exist in this world..._' The one formerly known as Epsilon thought back to the fight that Amber had against those three. '_You think that's why that kid was attacked? The bitch in the red dress wanted to eliminate a potential threat?_'

'_Considering that Grimm-colored bug she summoned, I think it was something else she was after._' Raoul began heading back towards Vale, taking a different road through the Agricultural District. '_Thinking on it, what purpose would that insect have served?_'

'_Don't quite know. There's still much to learn about this world. If we could get access to more readily available information, we'd be able to make more informed judgements._'

'_True. Still, we're going to need funding, alongside that place to call our own._' Raoul looked skyward, seeing the shattered moon once again. '_...now that I think about it, you did record that fight, right?_'

'_Which one?_'

'_The one about that magic kid getting jumped, before we intervened._'

'_I got a good bit of it committed to what memory space I have unscrambled, yes. Take it this is for outing them should they show up again?_'

'_Something like that. I've no doubt they'll come back for a second attempt eventually._' The Residential District came into view, and it was time to scout around some more - '_Oh, right... didn't get a chance to ask her about that magic._'

'_There is always next time. After that experience, some time to calm down would help her more than being pressed out of the blue._'

'_Fair enough. Though how would we locate her again? I have my doubts she'd be the type to sling spells out of the blue._'

**Beacon, Ozpin's Office**

**October 5, 12:21 A.M.**

With Amber taking sanctuary within an unused room after a quick medical examination, Ozpin turned his thoughts to the events that had recently transpired.

Someone was after the Autumn Maiden, likely to slay her and claim the power for their own. Somewhere in his mind, he had a guess forming about whom this crimson-clad woman had to be working for, if Amber's testimony about the attacker summoning a Grimm-colored insect was any indicator. Yet at the same time, the one calling itself an unwilling guest to Remnant stepped in to stop the power grab.

Going by the recording and images that Qrow provided, this Belderiver wouldn't be one to just show up for a social call, but would have to have some other kind of guise, either its true self or another form, in order to move about. Given that the wilds outside the kingdoms didn't offer too much in the way of housing and supplies, due to rampant Grimm activity, this Belderiver would have to step within one of the kingdoms sometime. And with this being having actively escorted Qrow and Amber back to Vale, implying he had been close before, if not already within the kingdom's borders...

The Headmaster had brought up a comprehensive database of all registered people within the kingdoms, and was getting on accessing and reviewing any security footage from the past few days. He'd only a little while before Beacon's current term would end, and even though the students got time off, he wouldn't, as the transcripts would begin to flood his office once more, needing approval or dismissal. If he were to obtain some level of comprehension over what this whole matter entailed, time would be of the essence.

Qrow would be in the area until tomorrow, mainly to keep Amber company until she went on her way. The dusty old crow had admitted to trying to catch a good glimpse of the assailants' faces, but getting Amber to safety took higher priority, given the attack's aftereffects and the ongoing battle. He did give mention to one of them, the one holding Amber during the battle, having green hair, red eyes and darkened skin. Tomorrow morning, once Amber had gotten on her way out to Vacuo, he'd begin his own search for Amber's assailants, and try to get some more info concerning them.

Much as he knew he'd catch an earful from Glynda Goodwitch, his erstwhile second-in-command here at Beacon, he had prepared some information to be passed to her as well. There was, however, one person whom he was silently dreading sharing this information with... he decided to carefully word this update to them.

Time to begin this search from the top. He'd go back at least two weeks, and start from there. He made a mental note to get his favorite hot chocolate ready - this could take a while. He'd also have to remember to get some sleep during all of this, as he didn't need another earful about his health.

Come to think of it, this wasn't the only oddity as of recent. There had been that video footage from Vacuo's borders about that strange light show, and something rising into the air before descending back down.

"Yet another mystery to add to the collection, it would seem..."

**Cinder's Camp, 5:12 P.M.**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

As Emerald and Mercury made to dismantle their tent and recollect their distributed supplies, Cinder cursed her foul streak of luck.

Their initial plan was to obtain the Fall Maiden's powers, and use them to convince the White Fang's Field Commander, Adam Taurus, that having turned her offer down before was a fatal mistake. Since that plan had gone up in smoke due to that anomalous interference, a new plan had been concocted.

**A few hours earlier...**

The plan had been set on their way back to where the White Fang had set up camp. Close-by in the northern section of Vale were some old railways, and often times the Schnee Dust Company would send Vale several shipments of the higher-quality Dust via train. Obviously, the White Fang had set up shop here to rob the train blind of its supplies once it made its way through the area.

Emerald would use her illusory Semblance to draw away several of the grunts on lookout, giving Mercury ample time to knock them out. With them out of the way, it'd give them the advantage of surprise in taking out the remaining ones that might've tried to fight back.

Cinder, much as she hated wasting resources on something as simple as a recruitment missive, had taken some time to weave plenty of Fire Dust into her sleeves. The heat would get the ground nicely prepared to allow her own Semblance to do the brunt of the talking. Rumors had been abound concerning Taurus and his skill with his crimson blade, and of course his right-hand man, the Lieutenant, had a Dust-powered Chainsaw said to be capable of tearing though anyone's Aura in seconds. If she allowed them to get their footing early, they'd be more than capable of brushing them off... she was going to deprive them of that chance, put them on the back foot and never let them get any control.

The plan was set. Soon, she'd make Taurus see the error of his-

"...uh, is this the right place?" Emerald spoke up, alerting Cinder to one very problematic issue.

The White Fang encampment was gone, the only traces of its existence being several footprints in the dirt. They were too late.

**Back to Present**

Cinder felt her dress' right pocket shake, as her Scroll went off. She knew whom it was that was calling, and much as she knew she should answer, she also knew that reporting her failure to capture the Fall Maiden's powers would get her raked over the proverbial Fire Dust...

No, she didn't have to report about the failure to capture the Fall Maiden, she'd just tell of Taurus packing up early. Sure, a reprimand was in the cards, but his decision to move early would be out of her hands. Besides, it'd be child's play to find them again, thanks to their long-standing grudge against the Schnees.

Though, as to where the Autumn Maiden would be held... she had an idea. All that she needed to do was confirm it.

**Vale Commercial District, Five Months in motion**

After the battle concerning the magic girl and the three assailants, Raoul began to settle into something of a loose routine during the next few months, as the autumn weather transitioned into winter. If he wasn't in the southern part of the kingdom using several Grimm as practice dummies to keep his skills sharp, he'd be found either checking out the various districts or holed up within the Vale Public Library, reading over varying topics. This was mixed with him checking around the outskirts of the kingdom, looking to find signs of those assailants lurking around.

At first, as one would rightly expect, people were understandably cautious around him. A tall, random stranger venturing out into the wilds every other day, and with an axe that odd-looking? Suspicions would undoubtedly rise, some beginning to wonder what his purpose really was.

During a few of his forays into the wilds south of the kingdom, he had occasionally met another wandering Hunter or two also working to combat the Grimm. Most of whatever conversations they had were mostly related to strategizing methods to draw the Grimm out to new areas to kill them off. For the most part, a lot of Grimm tended to be straightfoward in their attempts to kill people, so luring them into ambushes and traps was easily a viable strategy.

It was during one of these expiditions that it clicked as to why these humans didn't need protective wear, though he still figured it would be a better idea for them to have it.

**Vale-Vacuo Route, 137 days before the Encounter**

**October 17, 11:21 A.M.**

A fair-sized flock of Boarbatusks, Grimm resembling wild boars with elongated tusks, had decided to try and waylay some people traveling from Vacuo by foot, so off went several Hunters to kill the Grimm and ensure a less stressful passage into Vale. Not everyone had the money to be traveling via one of those aerial craft, and while the group had a few extra Hunters of its own, it was more practical to have the extra help on-hand if something went wrong.

Raoul brought his axe down, splitting one Boarbatusk's head in twain in a single blow. Not skipping a beat, he withdrew his gun with his free hand and fired at two other Boarbatusks, breaking the tusk of one and crippling another via a bullet to its leg.

One of the Hunters, a middle-aged man by the name of Hinto, had used a poleaxe to gut one in its unarmored belly; sadly, he wasn't watching his back, and he paid for it via being struck from behind by one of the Boarbatusks curling into a ball, spinning rapidly like an out of control tire, and launching itself into the human. For the briefest moment on impact, some kind of azure sheen was seen across the Hunter's body before it shattered like glass.

'_Wait a tick... wasn't that-_'

After killing the Grimm via lopping its head off, and ensuring that everyone and everything was accounted for, Raoul could overhear the Hunter stating that he'd be fine after his Aura restored itself, but his accompanying partner, Doug, had insisted on getting him back to the city to get checked out.

'_Aura? Likely not the kind I'm used to seeing._' Now intrigued, once the group had made it safely to the kingdom's borders he headed back to the Vale Public Library to look up this term.

**Vale Public Library**

**2:32 P.M.**

A bit of searching on the library's computer system lead him to an article that held some answers.

Aura was the term used to describe the manifestation of one's own soul as a ward against attacks. When unlocked and active, it pushed its user's abilities upward a fair amount, allowing them to block deadly attacks and even heal minor wounds. Some tales and videos of Hunters prior showed them able to leap multiple meters into the air and keep a running pace with most vehicles thanks to Aura enhancing their bodies.

However, as this was one's own soul projected outwards, it could only take so much punishment and use before breaking and needing to recharge. Not everyone had their Auras unlocked, with reasons ranging from a general lack of fighting ability or interest in such, to their Auras being potentially too small to be useable in combat. Not all souls held the same capacity, after all. There had also been a law stating that unless you were going into the Hunting business, having your Aura unlocked was illegal.

Of course, much like an actual shield in one's hand, it needed to be actively raised to get the best effect, else you were as vulnerable as when your Aura was still locked.

'_...this seems oddly deadly to rely upon. If something could break this Aura, it would undoubtedly kill them if another good hit landed. Is good, practical armor that hard to come by?_'

Of course, Raoul had no room to speak on the matter.

Still, this explained the shimmering he had seen during the assault against Qrow's ward some weeks ago. The red woman's explosive arrows, combined with the fatigue from whatever else her two cohorts had done prior to his arrival must've exhausted her Aura. Then, of course, when he stepped in, the one with the prosthetics had that same kind of shimmer, albeit grey-tinted.

Of course, Aura had another trick, aside from acting as a shield and overall enhancement. Some people with awakened Auras ended up possessing a Semblance, a unique ability borne from their soul that could be said to reveal much more about a person. Some were more suited for combat, whilst others were more for support roles. As long as one had Aura remaining, they could use their Semblance.

'_Huh... reading about these suddenly reminds me of Overload Skills.._'

'_Indeed. Though these Semblances appear to be useable so long as their user still has Aura, and pretty much anyone could have them. Overloads are usually restricted to Overlord-class demons and angels, and I can only think of a few that have non-combat applications. Then again, a single Overload can easily turn the tide of battle._'

'_Any that come to mind?_' As his companion asked this, his mind immediately turned to one specific Overlord that had visited his home Netherworld during his earlier days, long before he began his interdimensional escapades. This Overlord was a violet-haired female, and matching that hair was nine fox-tails and a pair of fox ears upon her head.

'_Overlord Izuna from Dragon Fang is an easy pick. Her Overload, Comet Disaster, could lay waste to entire armies of enemies in a single use.'_ His mind then went towards another Overlord, this one an immense green and blue moth that someone could easily ride. _'There's also Overlord Hedler from Poisondise - his Poison Party Mist could cripple entire worlds with some of the most debilitating toxins the Netherworld has ever seen..._' He continued reading, learning of a few recorded Semblances that were used as examples... one such Semblance gave its user the ability to generate powerful electricity. '_..now that I honestly give it some thought, these seem closer to those abilities that the people of Ivoire were said to have._'

'_Really? I've never been to Ivoire._'

'_Neither have I, but stories have come in about the people there and their unique skills. One bloodline was said to have the ability to light their souls on fire for an amazing strike. I bet if the people here were informed about them, they'd have a field day._'

With this information now known, he thought back on the attack against Qrow's ward... that crimson-clad woman must've made use of this Semblance thing, to turn that nigh-incinerated dirt into molten glass. At the same time, him seeing illusions of both her and her grey-haired associate had to have been a Semblance... of course, it did make him wonder which of the crimson woman's associates was using it.

**Vale, 124 days before Encounter**

**October 30, 1:21 P.M.**

As the first month of his stay in Remnant approached its end, he had begun to notice something of a change in a few of the Agricultural District residents. Many of them were lightening up on the suspicious glances, and a few had even tailed him to watch him commit mass murder on the ravenous smoke monsters that liked to lurk outside of Vale's borders. Of course, that paled in comparison to what had happened days prior.

After a particular extermination request had been finished up, Raoul headed back towards the heart of the kingdom, only for one of the residents to wave him over before he could cross into the Commercial District. When he headed over to the person in question, they pressed something into his hands before nodding and heading back to their home.

He took a look at what he had been given, and much to his surprise, it had been several Lien cards. Part of him wanted to return the money, but there was a note with the money, reading as such:

[_Been noticing how many Grimm you've taken out. This is a little token of our appreciation, stranger._]

Still, if they were willing to pay him to exterminate those Grimm, he'd be a fool to turn this opportunity down. It wasn't that much different from what he had done prior, and it'd at least get him into good standing with some more people.

Decorum to celebrate the season were up and in full swing, with some children excitedly wanting to show off their new costumes. Many of them were dressed up as Hunters and Huntresses of legend, whilst others were donning costumes that looked like cartoonish versions of the Grimm. One way to alleviate fears, it would seem... at some gatherings, the kids were even having "mock fights"; the Hunter-dressed kids putting on a theatric show of fighting the Grimm, and the Grimm-dressed kids having some amount of fun pretending to die in hilarious ways.

First thing was first - much as his ensemble had been a part of him throughout his many years, he needed something new to wear. Heading to the Commercial District once more, he decided it was time to check out the local clothing stores, and see if there was anything in his size. Being seven feet tall, he might need a custom order and all. With a fair amount of Lien in his possession, he entered the first store he found.

As he took a look around the multicolored aisles and shelves lined with different kinds of shirts, pants, and other wearables, he took notice of a tag that some articles had. If the tag were to be believed, these clothing items were "Hunter-grade", made to be durable in the case of Grimm attacks. Rubbing the material in-between his right hand's index finger and thumb, the material felt breatheable as well, which would allow for more efficient cooling when in battle or on the move. If he had to guess, it probably had something to do with linking with a person's Aura to provide extra defensive benefits. This might've been why so few people needed full-on armor.

'_It kind of reminds me of how most stuff in the Netherworld is made._'

"Sir..." A deep, masculine voice brought him from his thoughts. Looking over, he saw a man... no, a young man, easily his equal in height. The young man in question had black hair and tanned skin, about a shade or two lighter than his own. He had an ensemble of green and brown, with a black muscle shirt beneath it. "If you're looking for the larger sizes, they're three aisles down." He tilted his head in the aforementioned direction.

"The struggle of the giants, huh?" Raoul responded.

"You could say that."

"Still, thanks." With a friendly nod, Raoul headed down to the aisle mentioned, and as the equally tall stranger had said, there was the larger sizes, ready to be examined.

Around half an hour later, he exited the store, having grabbed two pairs of the essentials: shirts, pants, socks, the whole works. He'd even nabbed a new jacket similar to what he had on. However, it was as he was exiting the store that he had the feeling of being watched, as if this person was scrutinizing every aspect of him. He took a look around for a moment, but upon seeing nobody that looked to be gazing in his direction, he continued on.

Once he made it back to the warehouse, he wasted no time in changing into his new wear.

His new ensemble was one of a grey duster jacket, a blue muscle shirt, and a new camo pattern for his pants. His boots were still in excellent condition, so they weren't in need of replacing anytime soon.

Now it was time to break them in. What better to do than find a local laundromat and get his old stuff done up?

**Southern Sanus Continent, 105 days before Encounter**

**November 18, 10:34 A.M.**

Another day, another Grimm extermination request. Today was a little different.

A pack of Beowolves had been sighted a little too close to a smaller relay tower, so a few Hunters had been called in to take them out, lest the Grimm end up making communications difficult by destroying it.

What made this request a little different was the pack leader - an Alpha.

According to some studies, as Grimm got older, they get stronger and smarter with age... kinda like the demons back home, now that he thought about it. Then again, most demons back home also trained and studied up on new techniques, and the Grimm only had the extra strength and slight intelligence boost, so it was hardly a fair comparison. It was these older Grimm, the Alphas, that end up leading a pack.

The Alpha Beowolf stood at least a good two or three feet taller than its weaker brethren, and sported more bone plating along its elbows and knees. Its rib cage could be seen slightly protruding from its lower chest, and there were plenty more bone spikes along its outer forearms. A ridge of even more bone spikes trailed from the back of its head down along its spine, to at least midway down its back.

"C'mon, Fido, let's go for a walk!" Raoul taunted the larger Grimm, drawing its attention while the other Hunters worked on taking out the smaller packmembers so the relay tower could be inspected. A few bullets aimed towards its face also helped in making it focus on him.

The Alpha Beowolf took the bait as a bullet came close to clipping its ear, turning towards him and lunging. As would be expected from a stronger variant, the Alpha was also a fair bit faster on the draw, but Raoul proved much quicker. Even as the Grimm lashed out with its claws, he dodged each incoming blow, purposefully driving it into a deeper state of anger. Anger can give rise to greater strength, but the tunnelvision that comes alongside it can also cause one to make mistakes, and one such mistake was capitalized upon when the Alpha Beowolf tried to slam its claws into his chest.

He slid straight beneath its outstretched grasp and between its legs, firing three bullets from his gun into its chest, staggering it as a few of the bone plates cracked. As he got to his feet, the Grimm turned around and beelined right for him, intending to rake its claws across his chest. Raoul held his arm out, stopping the attack cold, and before the Alpha could figure out what just happened, he raised his right foot and brought it down hard on the Grimm's left knee. A horrid crunch could be heard as the Alpha's leg was torn off from the force of the stomp, and it howled in pain... for only a few more seconds, anyway.

Raoul put his gun's barrel to the Alpha's right eye, and pulled the trigger. The back of its head was blown clean out, and soon it fell over, dissolving away. Holstering his gun, he went to go see how the tower was doing... only it seems that that he had drawn a bit of an audience with that performance.

He got flooded with questions - what kind of gun was that? What ammo did it take to blow out an Alpha's skull so easily? What level of strength did he have to stop its swing cold?

He mentally sighed.

**Vale, 57 days before Encounter**

**January 7, 80 P.W., 10:32 A.M.**

Today seemed as good a day as any to swing by the Library for a little bit and check on what news is going on. The weather seemed to be oscillating between cold enough to snow, and warm enough to begin melting some of it, causing the streets and sidewalks to be covered with slush and melted snow. Some vehicles were busy helping clear the streets and sidewalks for when the temperatures dipped below freezing again, to prevent black ice.

"Back again, Raoul?" One of the check-in officers chuckled. "We're gonna have to get you a frequent visitor's pass or something."

"What can I say? Place has been pretty good to me."

Grabbing a seat at a nearby computer desk, it was time to check in on things.

So far, it appeared that things were relatively calm... and he immediately retracted that thought as articles detailing the occasional Dust Store robbery began to crop up. Whomever was hitting up those places was being meticulous about it - no money taken, just Dust. Taking into consideration the number of Dust stores within Vale alone, and this was already looking like one hell of a spree. The perpetrator, believed to be one Roman Torchwick, had been hitting up stores left and right, all the way from the Upper Class District and into the main Commercial District.

On that note, if this guy was spiriting away a ton of Dust, he'd have to have some kind of hideaway within the kingdom to duck into. A warehouse in the Industrial District would be ideal, but also somewhat predictable. Besides, given that his current hideout was in that District, that would've put him close to any activity around the area, and given there hadn't been much of a police presence... then again, this guy is a thief, and any good thief worth their weight in stolen goods knows how to hide effectively.

Making a mental note about this, as it would likely affect the security within the kingdom as these robberies kept up, Raoul had decided to switch gears and do a quick review on what he knew of Remnant. Today's main topic was of how Remnant got to this current point, and what each of the four kingdoms was like.

As he had read before, the Great War had started around 90 years ago according to Remnant's timescale, and lasted a full decade. Mistral and Mantle had been frequent traders with one another, and soon had set their sights on the Sanus continent. Vale, despite its people's wishes, had allowed the settlers from Mistral to set up shop, but tensions ran incredibly high - cultural differences most likely, resulting in riots.

Vacuo, having had relations with Mantle and Mistral thanks to its immensely rich Dust deposits, initially remained neutral in the conflict, but pressure from the other two countries was weighing heavily on the citizens. If Vale fell, there would be nothing stopping the foreign kingdoms from swooping in and claiming everything for themselves. Ultimately, they pushed the foreign powers out and allied with Vale, kicking the war off in earnest.

As the war raged on, technological advancements came swiftly, humanity and the Faunus grew closer together, and whenever the Grimm sought to capitalize on the fighting, both sides called for temporary ceasefires to drive the third party out.

The ultimate end came when the King of Vale, known by some as the Warrior King, personally stepped onto the battlefield at Vacuo, laying waste to legions of men on his own. This, combined with Vacuo having violent sandstorms and Mantle being highly inexperienced in desert combat, resulted in the war's termination. All three powers had offered up their crowns to the Warrior King, but he declined, instead choosing to redistribute the territories, abolish slavery, and restructure their governments. This would also be the founding of the Hunter Academies, training their people to combat the Grimm.

The history lesson now over, he put his current book onto a return cart, then went to check out any reference materials to the current Kingdoms. Since he was in Vale, that would be a good place to begin.

Vale was bordered by shallow waters to its northwest and high mountains to its southeast, making Grimm activity fairly uncommon and keeping the kingdom fairly safe to reside in. Key places to know of were Forever Fall, a gigantic stretch of forest to the north that obtained its name thanks to its constant autumn colors; Mountain Glenn, a failed expansion project to the southeast, and of course, Beacon Academy, the most prestegious of the Hunter Academies, behind which lay the Emerald Forest. One could easily look out an eastward window and see the academy. Maybe it was just him, but the place looked more like an olden-time castle than what someone would think an educational institution would appear as.

'_Gonna have to get a map of this kingdom, figure out what else lies where._' Up next on the list was Atlas.

Atlas lay to the north, on the arctic continent of Solitas. The high mountains and incredibly cold temperatures outright stifled Grimm presence on the continent, but of course most humans aren't made to survive in those conditions, so in order to establish some kind of livelihood there, they quickly developed incredible technology. They had set aside plenty of land devoted not only to Dust mining, but also research during the war. As a sign of goodwill for the war's end, they developed the Cross Continental Transmit System, allowing for wireless communications among the kingdoms. Anyone with a Scroll could easily keep in touch with others in the neighboring kingdoms, thanks to this system.

'_Technology... hmm..._' Gears were turning in his head.

'_Mr. Raoul, what are you thinking?_'

'_If Atlas is responsible for a lot of this world's technology, we might have a good place to stop off at and acquire some materials. At the very least it'd serve as a baseline for seeing if anything here could be compatible with Netherworld tech - assuming everyone else got off that world as well, we could send a message out into space._'

'_Hold on, I thought Dust didn't work in space._'

'_Hence why we need the compatibility. We'll have to add an alternate power source, likely some of my inherent Mana, to keep the signal strong._' Placing his books back, Raoul got up from his seat and headed back out into the city. Time to head back south and get some exercise in.

**Vale, 24 days before encounter**

**February 9, 9:34 A.M.**

"All right, think my systems are back up to full."

Raoul's friend had done a self-recovery on several of her systems over the past few months. Slowly, steadily, many of her initial skills were coming back into focus, and with each function unscrambled, that meant more memory and processing power to getting the other functions cleaned up.

"Sensory Array... green. Usatako Unit... everything is reading fine.. Memory's unscrambled, and the recording is sitting pretty. If and when we get that Item Diver working, remind me to check with the Netherworld Hospital and get a second opinion."

"Honestly, given how the Netherworld Clinic works, we'd probably be better off interrogating another Netherworld Scientist for that kind of opinion. Pretty sure the last thing we need is being strapped down and having an axe come down on us." Raoul gave his two Lien on his friend's suggestion as he looked over his weaponry.

His companion had gone quiet at that thought, a few not-so-pleasant memories of her own surfacing. Had she a body of her own, it's likely she'd have been shuddering.

His axe's blades were sharp, and in no need of attendance. His gauntlets were serviceable for the time being, but sooner or later he'd need to take them apart to check the interior workings and ensure that the recent events didn't damage them beyond repair. The gun that he had gotten as a replacement was working incredibly well, and he couldn't help but notice how natural it felt in his hands, almost like it had finally found its way back to him.

With everything in order, now came another foray into the Commercial District. With a fair amount of Lien now in his possession, it was time to check out the electronics shops and begin piecing together what he'd need to get.

**Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office, Several Months prior to Interrogation**

**March 5, 8:19 P.M.**

Ozpin stepped away from his desk, mainly to stretch out and let his tired hands rest.

The application processes were going very smoothly, with confirmation mail going out to those accepted into the academy. Now he turned an idle thought to how well the process was going in trying to out their mystery assistant. Thousands of people entered and exited Vale throughout the last few months, and even with some of the most sophisticated technology allowing for such a search, very little was coming up.

Glynda, as one would've suspected, was rightly suspicious about this Belderiver's intentions. Initially, she had suspected Qrow to be drunk, as he usually was, but it was Amber's extra testimonial that caused her suspicions to falter. Regardless, this was an unknown that needed to be figured out, before it could cause a panic across the kingdom, and become a lure for the Grimm.

So far, every person they had run though the system came back with positive identification. He'd need to wrap this up quickly, preferably before the Council caught wind of the situation and decided to take matters into their own hands.

As far as the situation with Amber was concerned, he had silently commissioned a private ship to take her out towards Vacuo, as she had requested. There was a lingering concern about the three assailants trying their hand again, but he had called ahead to the Desert Kingdom and requested a close friend of his to keep tabs on her, as a just in case measure. From the last few messages he had received, Amber had settled in fairly well in the desert kingdom, and was currently staying with a close friend of hers that she had made out there before.

His personal Scroll pinged, and as he opened it up to answer, he received an interesting report. Glynda had been out on her rounds through the city, when she caught wind of a Dust Store robbery being carried out by Roman Torchwick. What made this worth reporting was the following - a single young girl had managed to fend off Torchwick's hired help, and had followed the infamous criminal. It was when he started fighting back that Glynda had to intervene.

Ozpin saw there was an attached file to the report, one concerning the young girl that had stymied Torchwick's robbery, and so he opened it up. What he saw had surprised him.

This young girl, a Signal Academy student by the name of Ruby Rose, couldn't have been older than fifteen at the latest, and yet... her eyes. He'd only seen one other person in this lifetime that had those silver eyes, and she even held the same surname as that former silver-eyed being. Without a doubt this had to be her daughter.

He sent a reply - he would be personally appearing to speak with Miss Rose. As he grabbed his favorite cane and began to head down to the Vale Police Department, he stopped for a second, and sent a second message to Glynda, urging her to not be too harsh on Miss Rose.

**Vale Streets, 7:45 P.M.**

**Just moments earlier...**

Having completed his usual Grimm extermination, Raoul had headed back into the Commercial District for another scout around, namely to see if anyone with loose wallets had accidentally dropped some idle money here or there, and it had been the faint sound of what seemed like fighting that caught his attention, followed by something making a loud bang. Running over to investigate, he saw several black-suited humans laid out on the streets, as if someone had knocked them around. The front window of the "From Dust Till Dawn" shop had been broken from the inside, if the shards of glass on the street were an indicator. An explosion sounded from above, and as he looked upwards, he saw a cloud of red eminating from one of the rooftops... and was that some manner of aircraft up there?

'_Looks like another one of those VTOLs, a Bullhead, if the engine arrangements are an indicator._' From what he could see, the aircraft was being pelted with multiple icy shards raining down from some manner of stormcloud, yet no magic was felt - something was up. Given that nobody else was around, though he could hear sirens in the distance getting closer, he took a quick leap up to another rooftop. From his new vantage point, he scoped out the situation.

He could see people on another rooftop. There was some teenage girl in black with a red hood. She was carrying some manner of oversized crimson scythe, and right next to her was a blonde woman in a white and black ensemble with a tattered cape, but his attention went squarely to the aircraft.

'_It's that bitch in the red dress!_' Standing in what looked like a side-door to the VTOL craft was the crimson-clad woman that had attacked the girl from before. Her two lackeys were noticably missing, but that was minor in comparison to the battle at-hand.

The red-clad one and the blonde woman were exchanging what looked like powerful blasts of magic, but Raoul couldn't sense any magical potency, not like what Qrow's ward had been using. Mayhaps it was a different branch of magic, or maybe they were using that Dust substance in combination with their Semblances? Regardless, the one in red was forced to retreat after one of the blonde's techniques had done some more damage to the aircraft's engine, threatening to ground it. The scythe-wielding girl had folded up her weapon into some kind of gun and had also fired at the craft, but the woman in red had dodged the gunfire, quickly closing up the side hatch.

As the craft quickly pulled away, Raoul made to follow. After taking a second to make certain that the two on the roof wouldn't notice him, he took off running across the rooftops. He did his best to keep behind the craft, so as to not draw their attention.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:26 A.M.**

"That explains what I thought I saw after apprehending Miss Rose." Glynda was the first to speak in this matter. "Here I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.. it had been a bit of a long night."

"And if my guess is correct..." Ozpin took over. "...what's coming next is in relation to the news report that aired the next day."

"Before that... your companion somehow recorded the assault against Miss Amber?" Ironwood had latched onto that detail.

"Indeed I did." Said companion affirmed. "I still have the file within my memory, if you feel like viewing it once we're done here."

"I'll hold you to that statement. Now then... you chased down Torchwick?"

"That we did." Nelius took over speaking. "Here's what came next."

Chapter 4: Complete


	5. Chapter 5

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Transitions**

Chapter 5: One's Loss, Another's Gain

Surprise after surprise seemed to keep piling up today. If there had been any doubts in Ozpin's mind about Ruby Rose, today's meeting had effectively erased them. She truly was her mother's child.

However, with the night winding down, it was prudent for him to get some sleep. Caffiene could only keep him awake so long, and he had hundreds of potential students to address before the year officially began. Introductory speeches don't write themselves in a single night, you know.

It was around six minutes after he had exited his office and headed for his personal quarters that the computer system at his desk finished another comprehensive look through the databases of registered people... and came back with an unmatched person of interest. It began compiling a list of times and locations this unknown had been to.

**Vale, 7:54 P.M.**

**Sometime earlier...**

Raoul had tailed the strange VTOL-like jet all the way through to the west end of the Industrial District, very close to the border of the Commercial District that seperated it from the Upper Class District. He was certain he had passed by the warehouse that he had used as a hideaway, but that was for another time. The aircraft lowered down near one of the other warehouses, and two people emerged from it.

One of them was the woman in red, but the other was a taller man with orange hair in a white suit and a cane in one hand. Perhaps this had been her getaway pilot?

'_Come to think of it, the guy's overall look does match the description of that Torchwick person..._' But he pushed that thought to the back of his mind for the time being. Focusing on the two, he could hear something ... the crimson bitch seeming a bit unimpressed that her cohort was given so much trouble by a teenage girl. Raoul would've liked to get closer, but didn't want to risk getting seen. Keeping as low as he could, he studied their current location.

From his vantage point, he could see more of those black-suited humans milling about the area, some of them being ordered by the guy with the cane to move things out of the VTOL and into the warehouse. The woman in red had already headed off elsewhere, several of the suited men following the cane guy into the warehouse with nondescript black suitcases and baby blue crates that seemed to have a snowflake on the exterior. As the VTOL was emptied of its cargo, the woman in red returned about four to five minutes later, telling the guy with the cane to do something with the supplies as she took the craft elsewhere, ostensibly for repairs.

'_Hey. Haven't we seen that snowflake before?_' Raoul's companion had taken notice of the emblem.

'_Yeah... that Dust company, if memory serves. Looks like the bitch in the red dress has that suited guy on her payroll._'

'_From trying to murder that magical girl in cold blood to mass theft... if this place played by what Netherworld rules I do know, this chick might've made for a typical demon._'

'_Either way, shall we steal their shit right out from beneath their noses?_' If his companion had a visible face, she'd have a grin to make the devil himself shiver with nervousness.

'_One better. We're gonna completely mess up her operations... and he's gonna lead us to them._' Upon hearing that, Raoul had an unsettling grin of his own.

'_I like the way you think. Let's show them some real Hell._'

With that, the two of them set the plan into motion. Part one - wait for the guy in the suit to depart.

**Inside the Warehouse**

**8:00 P.M.**

Today was not a good day for Roman Torchwick. Not only had most of his hired help been knocked out by some teenage girl with an oversized harvesting tool, one of Beacon's residing teachers had seen fit to intervene as well, forcing his erstwhile employer to extract him. Truth be told, Roman wasn't exactly fond of this woman, this... Cinder Fall, but it'd be a cold day in Vacuo before he would tell that to her face.

Something else to consider was her two understudies, the grass-headed thief, Sustrai, and the son of the infamous Marcus Black. He stopped for a moment to think on that... news had been going around for the last few months that Marcus was dead - made him wonder who could've gotten the drop on him. The old bastard was known for having been a cautious sort, given his profession as a hitman - then again, he wouldn't have been too surprised if his own son was the one to kill him. The little punk certainly had a lot of Marcus' mannerisms.

'_Guess that apple didn't fall far from the tree after all._'

He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. For now, it was best to focus on running these Dust thefts and keeping Cinder's attention on that.

'_Speaking of which, Neo's running late._' He flipped out his burner Scroll, which had been thankfully modified so as to keep certain information off the CCT-grid, so to speak. Wouldn't do him much good to be easily traceable, after all.

{Neo, what's your status?} Message tapped out, he hit send. It was about two minutes before a response came back.

{On my way back. Made a bit of a stop. Problem?} Well, there's one concern down.

{Cinder's been lighting a fire under my ass to get more Dust. So, y'know, the usual.} He reached into his coat for his lighter and another cigar. If tonight was going to set a precedent for any other problems he'd be facing in pulling off these heists, he was going to need this. {Would be nice to know what it is she needs all this Dust for, at the very least. Hate to think I'm risking my neck for nothing.}

{Want me to tail her next time she heads out?} He took a moment to mull this response over as he lit up one of his favorite Vacuo-brand cigars.

{Novel idea, but we can't have her getting too suspicious of us, else she'll clam up with her whole "You'll know when you need to" nonsense. Find out what you can, just keep subtle about it.}

{Can do. See you back at home. :)} As he closed the conversation, he weighed his options as he exhaled a puff of smoke. He could go hit up a few more places tonight, but most of those places would be closed, requiring a break and enter, and much as he was glad that Junior was more than willing to hire out his personal gang for these operations, they weren't exactly the brightest or strongest of the bunch, if some kid acting like a Hunter was able to knock them around. That, and there'd be no telling if that blonde Hunter would be on the lookout for any activity.

No. Tonight was enough. It'd be a better idea to lay low for a bit, and let tensions cool off before he struck again. That would give him enough time to compile a quick list of what places would be ideal to visit next. Besides, once Beacon started up its classes, their professors would be tied up trying to keep the kids from turning unruly. That'd give him plenty of time to get to work.

He turned and left the warehouse, heading back to one of the safehouses that he set up within the Upper Class District. He was fairly confident that little would happen while he got some shut-eye and planned out the next place to hit up, but figured that if complications did arise, Junior's boys would be competent enough to contact either Neo or himself. A number of Vale Police Officers weren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer, so keeping his ill-gotten gains away from prying eyes should be an easy task.

Sadly for him, things were about to take a turn for the worse. As he exited the warehouse, he was unaware of a pair of eyes keeping tabs on him from above. One of those eyes in particular was analyzing Torchwick, gathering whatever information it could on him.

'_OK, got a rough fix on his biometrics... and saved. We ought to be able to track him with this._'

Roughly five minutes after Torchwick had left the area to go rest for the night, Raoul sprang into action. Dropping down from his vantage point outside and keeping to the shadows as he peered in through a window, the offworld demon took count of the number of hired thugs inside the place, counting about four in total. Each seemed to be armed with a crimson-colored machete or hand-axe, and didn't have much else on them.

Finding an open window on the ground floor, likely to allow for some ventilation on this surprisingly warm night, he climbed into the warehouse, making certain to land softly, lest he make too much noise. Nearest his position on the warehouse's right side as he ducked behind a crate, there were two of the suits, idly conversing.

"Man, easy pay for this work." One of them noted. "Ain't like anyone's gonna come sniffing around for this stuff."

"Don't get lazy. You heard about what happened to the ones that initially went with him, right?" The other suited man chided his co-worker.

"Yeah, yeah, some kid acting like a Hunter, and one of Beacon's own. Still, by the time either of 'em could get here we'd be long gone with the goods."

It took about a minute for the two of them to part ways. The one that remained behind took a moment to stretch and yawn, and it was in the moment that Raoul struck. A hand went around the suit's mouth, and as he was dragged backwards he tried to unsheath his machete and alert his cohorts, only to fall unconscious a few seconds later as an arm went around his throat, depriving him of vital oxygen.

The suit was carefully placed behind the crate, and Raoul set his sights on his next target. The other suited human had come around, and not seeing his co-worker there did raise his suspicions. A hand went to his back, keeping a hold on his hand-axe as he looked around for a moment.

"Must've gone for a leak. Could've at least called it in first." He eventually muttered to himself, turning to check out another window... and that was when he met the same fate as his cohort, even being placed next to him.

'_Up there... the other two guys._' Up on the second-floor catwalks were the two other guards, these ones smartly placed across from each other. If one went down, the other could respond quickly. Hell, if something down below had caught their attention, they'd be able to call it in... thankfully Raoul had been making sure to keep quiet in dispatching the two on the ground floor.

Their patrol was a good one as well, likely assigned by the guy in the white suit - they kept across from one another, only stopping at the corners of the catwalks to check over things. It took them about a minute to walk around to their next point. Then again, much like the two suits down here, they had refused to get rid of their shades, and while they did look pretty stylish, eyewear meant to darken out bright lighting wasn't the greatest choice of wear in these sub-lighted conditions.

Waiting for one to pass overhead, Raoul leapt up to the catwalk behind the suit, making certain to keep his landing quiet, and once the usual muffling gesture was applied he choked the breath out of of this one, silencing him. Now came taking care of the last one... and that would be an easy task with the others unconscious. He began a speedy prowl up to the other guy.

As the last of the suits came up, he sighted his fallen cohort and scrambled to get his machete ready, his other hand going for his pocket to get out the burner Scroll supplied as means of communication. It had taken a fair bit of doing, but these Scrolls were coded to brick themselves if any sort of authority tried to download whatever information was available, thus keeping any heat off their boss.

Something tapped him on the shoulder, and as he whirled around with his weapon outstretched, hoping to hit whomever it was that tried to get the drop on him, a fist buried itself into his gut, and with a pained wheeze his vision went black as he went down. Raoul hefted the two goons down to pile them with their compatriots, but he then remembered that last one was going for something in his pockets, and so decided to check.

Looks like these suits were getting cash down for the guard job, as a few Lien cards were found. Something else caught his attention - the guy whom he just gut-punched had one of those strange, phone-like devices... a Scroll, if his memory was on point. This one had a white coloration to its exterior.

'_This device... maybe we can use it to our advantage.._'

'_Very well. Let's see what else was left here._' With the suits out cold, there was nothing stopping him from checking out whatever else they had grabbed. Might as well take his time and closely inspect what all they had fleeced.

That said, an idea crossed his mind as he checked out the varying crates of Dust that were stockpiled within this place... might as well take a page from his old man's book.

**Sunday, March 6, 12:03 P.M.**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

"The robbery was lead by nefarious criminal Roman Torchwick, whom continues to evade authorities. If you have any information regarding his whereabouts, please contact the Vale Police Department. And now onto our follow-up. Over to you, Lisa." The mugshot of Torchwick disappeared as the reporter in question, a lavender-haired woman, was shown on the broadcast.

"Thank you, Cyril. While the whereabouts of Roman Torchwick are still unknown, Vale Police have made a breakthrough in the recent Dust theft string sweeping the Kingdom." The screen changed, showing an aerial shot of the Industrial District as one of the warehouses was cordoned off with caution tape. "An anonymous tip had come in shortly before nine-thirty yesterday evening about suspicious people being sighted within the Industrial District, and as a few officers were dispatched to check on the situation, what they found astounded them."

The image on-screen shifted to show the warehouse's contents. Nearest the doors, four men in matching black suits were found unconscious, loose wiring being used to tie them together. On an airship headed towards the prestegious Beacon Academy, two sisters shared a look of recognition, and when they had seen that the other had the same look upon their face...

"Four members of the infamous Axe-gang were found tied up outside an open warehouse. What baffled the officers even further was what was found inside the warehouse - around two tons of stolen Dust crystals and powders of various quality."

The screen shifted once more, showing one of the Officers detailing where the stolen goods had been found at within the warehouse. This got a few of the airship's passengers talking.

"When asked about the potential identity of whomever called this in, concerns have been raised in regards to whomever it was that took on such a dangerous group of individuals..."

As Torchwick himself watched this news bulletin from his hideaway within the Upper Class District, his expression changed from curiosity to anger and straight into annoyance. He'd made damn well certain to keep off the radar to prevent things like this from happening in the first place... one of Junior's men must've screwed up.

'_Gonna have to have a long talk with the old bear about his hired help._' As the report turned to something about a Faunus protest that turned into a riot, he grabbed his hat and cane before turning his television off.

**Beacon Academy, 12:45 P.M.**

Ozpin looked over some new information that had come up since the other night. It seems that out of all the matches that were being run throughout the night, a blank had finally come up.

This person proved to be a male, standing about seven feet tall, with wild, dark brown hair. He had an eyepatch over his left eye, and combining this with his orange-eyed gaze, it gave the impression of someone whom broached little nonsense. His clothing looked well-worn, as if it had been through many a battle, and if he had to take a guess as to this one's age, he estimated it lay somewhere between the late twenties to mid thirties. Oddly, when this unknown entered the kingdom's limits through the Agricultural District a little over five months ago, it seemed that an axe and gun could be seen on his person, yet when seen elsewhere, they were missing, replaced by a pair of gauntlets - he must have found a place to stash them away, yet there were no records of anyone matching his appearance purchasing a place to rent or own.

He had been seen frequenting the public library, and from what the security footage from around there had shown, he had proven polite, yet quiet, looking up historical topics and present-day issues if his forays into certain sections of the library could attest to such. He didn't appear to be a threat, as one of the security personnel seemed to be on a named basis with him, but as Amber's encounter with the three assailants had proven, one didn't need to look deadly in order to be so.

Tidings of this same man, named Raoul according to the testimonial footage from the library, helping in killing any Grimm that got close to the Agricultural District proved that point. Whomever he was, he easily performed the work of several Hunters at once, able to take out even Alpha Grimm with ease. Fortunate, but also very concerning.

He slid his gaze over to another side of his desk's screen. Seems it was almost time to address the students that were to gather today. Putting this information away for later study, he got up from his desk and grabbed his favorite cane. He could return to this matter, alongside the others, once he had some free time.

**Occupied Warehouse, 1:10 P.M. **

Raoul took a quick look over his acqusitions from the other night. In all, he had taken around 500 Lien from those suited gangsters, at least if his cross-reference with the money he had earned from killing the Grimm further south was accurate. There was also the matter of this strange device, this Scroll... it seemed that aside from a flatscreen phone mode, it could be stretched out into some kind of tablet-esque form.

As he tapped through the device, he explored whatever features it had available. With this, at last there was a portable connection to the CCT - now he could start looking things up in earnest whenever the library wasn't an option. Looked like there was a messaging system, a live communications service, this world's version of the internet... seems there was also video and audio recording and playback features.

His erstwhile partner, in the meantime, had taken to trying to interact with the device over a wireless connection.

"Hm... this programming language is something else..." He could hear her mutter idly as she tried to make heads or tails of it. "I wonder, maybe if I..." It was about another two minutes before he heard her speak up again. "Well, this is something."

"What's up?"

"As I check out the coding for this thing, I begin to notice holes in it... sporadically, yet deliberately in a few spots. I think this thing was gutted previously."

"Then again, if it was in the use of that suit, whom was working for that crimson chick, I'd imagine being traceable would be ill-advised." A few seconds passed before an idea clicked. "If this thing was hacked, think we can add or remove some features of our own?"

"Interesting idea, but I'm gonna need more time to fully understand this thing."

"Very well." Letting his partner continue on with her examination of the Scroll, he turned his thoughts towards plans for the future. While contacting everyone and getting an evacuation home was highest priority, that was the endgoal once everything else had fallen into place. For right now, gathering supplies was a must. There was also learning more about the other Kingdoms... There was also Menagerie, the island of the Faunus...

His stomach rumbled, giving off a burbling sound akin to some kind of horror from the deep rising up, ready to devour all that got in its path.

"And there's a universal sign. Time for some lunch." Taking the swiped Scroll, he pocketed it in his jacket as he placed the Lien cards within his pants pocket. "Think you can still keep working with it in that form?"

"Yeah, I still have the connection."

"All right." Letting his wing coat his left arm again, he headed out. Time for something a bit more filling. An idle thought then crossed his mind as he hit the streets towards downtown. '_Say, that reminds me..._'

'_What's up?_'

'_Did you ever decide on your new name?_' At that, his partner went quiet, contemplating this.

'_To be honest, not yet. I'm still mulling it over._'

'_Understood._' Deciding to not push the issue further, he looked on for a place to get some food. Hm, seemed this stand was selling noodles... might as well give them a try.

**Beacon Academy, 2:21 P.M.**

Ozpin sat back in his chair as he assessed the schedule for the upcoming year.

Initiation was already planned out for the first-year hopefuls, so nothing to worry about there. Once teams had been formed, then schedules would be sent to their Scrolls. He could only hope that these hopefuls caught the meaning behind his speech this year.

Right now, he needed to address a number of messages that had come in.

First on the chopping block was one from Qrow.

Hey Oz, it's me.

Right now, leads on Amber's assailants are a little touch and go. I'm going to be in the area for a little while before I hit up Mistral again for some clues. Knowing Leo, I'm going to drop him a line first so he doesn't go any more prematurely grey than he already is.

Not exactly promising, but giving up now wouldn't help matters.

Moving on, he got a report from Vacuo concerning Amber herself.

To Ozpin,

Amber's been an honest delight to have around Vacuo. But, all good things must come to an end eventually, and as such she's going to be heading back northward. She mentioned that she wanted to head back to Vale and stick around the area for a time, but ultimately she's going to pass on the idea and go further northward to Atlas instead.

Give James my regards.

He couldn't fault Amber's logic. Insight as to whom these three assailants were specifically was at a premium, and she didn't want to draw undue attention to herself. Though if she was headed northward, she'd have to pass by Vale unless she took an aircraft to circumvent the trip.

As he worked to move his messages into sorted inboxes, he gave a sigh of restrained frustration as he saw the next message to be moved - it was from James Ironwood, the Headmaster of Atlas Academy and Commander of Atlas' Military Forces. When he had given James the update on the situation with Amber months prior, his almost-immediate reply was one of nearly telling Ozpin to take a much more proactive approach to not only the situation with the Autumn Maiden, but also in the investigation into whoever or whatever this Belderiver was.

'_I wish James would take a moment to consider the other side of this coin..._' Much as there was a point to be made in tracking down both the assailants and Belderiver, what Ironwood was proposing was something akin to a full-on raid throughout the Kingdom's various living areas and other places. Too much activity would give rise to a cautious nature for both targets, perhaps altering their own schedules to try and avoid the search. Combine this with the already rising tensions regarding the Dust thefts, and it'd be a magnet for the Grimm. Lax as his own methods were, they played to the targets' feelings of security, letting them move openly, unaware of whatever eyes he might have spread throughout. What was needed here was scouts, not soldiers.

'_Days I feel like I'm getting too old for this..._' Opening up a new message, he gave Ironwood a quick heads-up in regards to Amber stopping by Atlas before she came back down towards Vale. It'd give him something to occupy his time, and give Ozpin the time needed to unravel the identities of Amber's assailants.

**Vale Industrial District, 3:52 P.M.**

Raoul returned to his warehouse hideaway, looking over his various purchases made with the money he lifted from the gangsters. He had noticed increased police presence around the area, no doubt due to that tip he left last night. Thankfully there was more than one way into this warehouse... while the Police were casing around outside, they didn't really think to look skyward.

Of the 500 Lien he had obtained from the gangsters, about 45 had gone to the noodle stand. Guy made some delicious stuff, and it only felt right to tip him a touch extra. For things not within the perview of food, he had taken to checking the local electronics shops, mainly for anything related to Scrolls. About 330 Lien later and he exited with not only another Scroll, this one being his official one for business and research, but also two extra chargers. This one he picked up was a dark orange with a royal blue trim to it. Combined with his earnings from the Agricultural District, that left him with around 2200 Lien, which should see him through the next few weeks or so.

"I have to say, the coding for this thing is a bit spotty." His companion's voice broke him from his thoughts.

"What makes you say that?"

"As you theorized before, this Scroll you stole from that suited guy was definitely hacked. From how much coding was cut, added and swapped around, seems it was made to be single-purpose."

"No surprises there. Like I said before, being traceable would put a serious target on their backs. Anything else you managed to find?"

"Open it up and I'll explain further." He did so, opening the stolen scroll into its phone mode. "All right, here's the rub. According to the coding found within this folder's contents-" The folder in question lit up with a red outline, "-something is coded to brick this entire thing if someone else tries external data recovery on this device. I'm not even going to try and mess with it, lest we crash this thing before we can get anything good off it."

"It'd have to be disguised as something harmless, like a cookie packet or something similar. Hell of a way to cover their tracks."

"Oh, it gets better. Flip over to the contacts." Raoul did so, bringing up what seemed to be an empty list. "Tap the third one from the bottom." He scrolled to the end of the list and tapped the seemingly empty bar, bringing forth an entirely new menu. Among its commands were a full reset, adding or deleting necessary programs, and even one to completely crash the file recovery mechanics.

"This seems to be much more than a simple hacking job. How'd you figure this stuff out so quickly?"

"To be honest, it was a bit of dumb luck. Once I did a little cross-checking with the coding types I knew of, I applied knowledge from each of them to try and crack this open. Some quick switching about and here we are."

"It truly was good fortune you managed to stick close. I'd have probably either taken longer or screwed this up entirely.. software programming wasn't exactly my forte."

"We're not entirely done yet. This Scroll you filched could be our ticket to finding out more about where the bitch in the red dress has been laying low at."

"All right. Guessing we're taking tonight to look these Scrolls over?"

"Mostly the stolen one, but yes." The sound of someone undoing the lock on the front door of the warehouse alerted Raoul to their presence. Grabbing his purchases and putting them back into the bag, he quickly headed up to the second floor, where the window he had used to enter was open enough to allow him to slip through it. Making certain to grab his other belongings, he slipped out the window and onto the back end of the roof.

Down below, several Vale Police Officers swept into the now empty warehouse, searching for any clues regarding Torchwick. They found nothing related to him, but did find footprints belonging to someone else, which had the warehouse security deciding to review their patrol routes.

'_That was close. Don't need the local law enfocement thinking I'm some squatter or something._'

'_We kinda are, though._'

'_Either way, guess we either wait for them to leave, or we find a new hiding spot._' As a few more officers could be seen coming to investigate the warehouses, the option was cast for them to find a new base of operations. Sneaking around to the back end, he dropped down and made his way out.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:34 A.M.**

"This Scroll you obtained... where is it?" Ozpin inquired.

"Back at our base." Raoul's companion spoke up. "At the time, there was still a fair amount for me to learn about it - we were getting ready to check out more about its source code when everything happened."

"If it is indeed hacked, then it seems Miss Fall might have more friends on the side."

"It may prove tricky to extract the data without compromising the system." Ironwood mused, mostly to himself. "Regardless, evidence is mounting to having those three brought in for questioning."

"Sure... if you want them to attempt escape and potentially fleeing back to whomever else they have as allies." Nelius countered, getting a hard glare from the General in return. "Whatever they're planning to spring on Vale, it requires them to be anonymous faces in the background. So long as nobody can trace anything to them, they're able to move about as they wish."

"I see...but at the same time, that strategy also proved to be a double-edged sword." Ozpin was catching on. "They put their efforts towards remaining unknown towards Vale as a whole, only for another unknown to see through their plan."

"Right now, Fall doesn't know of either myself or my friend here. We'd like to keep it that way, if it's not too much trouble... the less they have to learn of us, the worse off their plans can be."

To this end, Ozpin glanced over to Glynda, whom had been diligently taking down notes on this matter. The Headmistress immediately began deleting the more sensitive bits that the interrogation had uncovered, such as his actual identity as a demon, overwriting it with much more mundane details. If Cinder and her associates were indeed within Beacon's walls, then it'd be much safer to disguise the truth for the time being.

Chapter 5- Complete


	6. Chapter 6

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Transitions**

Chapter 6: Routine

After taking a moment to find a quick hiding place so he could store his belongings away in his right wing, Raoul had taken to learning more about Remnant's history, mostly as a blend into the crowd scenario just in case. Thanks to the acquisition of his new Scroll, he had something with which to take notes and compare information. Being a Sunday, the Local Library was closed early, so he gave his recent acquisition a test run, connecting it to the CCT in order to see what all it could really do.

Today's topic of review was of Vacuo, the expansive desert he had seen right after crash-landing into this world. The kingdom originally was home to lush jungles, an immense oasis and tons of natural resources, all surrounded by natural barriers that deterred many from attempting to lay claim to it all. Instead of having a major city, the people of Vacuo were as nomads, roaming the immense landscape.

Sadly, everything provided in one place for the people caused the people to grow complacent, an inverse of what the people of Solitas had gone through. They simply had no drive to adapt and develop, which made it incredibly easy for other Kingdoms to worm their way in and begin claiming resources for their own use.

Years of this had turned this once thriving jungle climate into an effective wasteland. Warfare, heavy mining and ecological disasters ruined it all, forcing the people to keep to their nomadic lifestyle to avoid becoming a wandering Grimm's lunch, assuming the wildlife didn't get to them first.

And then the Great War happened in earnest, with Vacuo finally siding with Vale. The kingdom lost many of its settlements to the Grimm before everything was over. Eighty years had done little to help the desert kingdom recover.

Like the other Kingdoms, an Huntsman Academy was established within the kingdom, and a governing body soon followed... however, it appeared that the people didn't care much for the attempt at establishing any laws, leaving the Academy to step up as a policing force.

According to various cross-checks, the one unbidden rule in Vacuo was one of survival: If you could prove yourself able to survive in such a place, then you'd be considered one of their own, regardless of whether you were human or faunus.

'_Hm, kinda reminds me of home, now that I think about it._'

'_What do you mean?_'

'_Back home in the Netherworld, if you proved yourself capable of fighting and surviving those literally hellish conditions, then you were considered an equal, even if some demons were opinionated against humans and angels._'

'_I'll have to take your word on it. I don't have many memories of Netherworld life._'

A quick glance towards the top right showed that it had just turned to 7:40 at night. Small snippets of conversations between passerbys had implied that Beacon Academy was currently putting its first-year applicants through initiation tomorrow, and apparently one among them was a famous tournament circuit champion. He mostly put it out of his mind, seeing as it didn't concern his operations.

Putting up a bookmark on his personal Scroll to check out available information on Mistral on his next visit, followed by Menagerie, he closed his Scroll and pocketed it, contemplating his next move. With Police still active in the Industrial District, heading back to the warehouse he had been using would be a risky endeavor. True, he could wait until after they had departed to retake the locale, but he was now considering finding a spot that was much less suspicious. There was also the possibility of them deciding to make a surprise raid on the warehouses.

**Beacon Academy, 7:43 P.M.**

Opzin returned to his office, the initiation procedures completed and the stage set for the new first-year teams to be formed. Oobleck's suggestion for this year's initation was quite a stroke of genius.

He flipped through his personal Scroll, looking to see if any updates regarding Amber's respective assailants and savior had come in. No dice, it would seem. Sometimes, no news could be considered good news, but in such a case as this, it wouldn't do.

Now then, onto the information about this new face around Vale... aside from what had already come in before regarding his frequenting of the public library and helping kill Grimm in the southern end of the kingdom, there wasn't much else to find regarding him.

If he was but an unregistered being, then it'd be a simple matter of supplying the forms and having him full out the necessary information. Though, to be this old and unregistered within any of the kingdoms was already one red flag.

He had done a search for those that had the name of Raoul, and while many matches came back, both male and female, none of them matched the being in the footage. Perhaps this was a psudeonym to hide one's identity, one chosen at random, yet an equal possibility was of him being a former bandit, as more often than not they tended to only go near the Kingdoms when in need of something.

'_I wonder what other secrets this one might be holding..._'

**Vale Streets, 10:52 P.M.**

The hunt for a new place of residence was not going very well for Raoul. While there were some apartments for rent, he didn't have any forms of identification, so trying to get a place like that wouldn't be very feasible. Police presence was increasing around the Industrial District as they were hunting for any other spots that Torchwick might've had as storage, so raising suspicions by sticking around there was a bad idea.

Given that tonight was going to be a clear night, with local weather forcasts calling for no rain for the forseeable future, it looked like he was going to be camping out this time.

Hanging out on the rooftop of one of the highest-rising buildings he could find within Vale, he withdrew both of the Scrolls, and began using his to connect to the CCT. In the meantime, his partner was continuing her coding exercises with the filched Scroll, trying to understand it in its entirety.

"Hmmm..." His eye flicked left to right as he entered in his search query.

"Something up?" His partner inquired, taking her holographic form.

"Testing the waters, so to speak." Having entered in a random search term, he deleted it before entering another term. He kept note of how quickly the Scroll loaded up the information.

"What kinda tests we talking?"

"Speed, relevance to the search term, links provided... standard kinda thing." As he erased the current search term, he decided to look up things related to recycled electronics. A few links to local electronics shops popped up, a small map of Vale providing physical locations to look for. A couple of links were directed towards Atlas' territory.

"Looking to put part of that message into space thing into production?"

"If the parts could be insulated to survive the trip up, then yes. There's also creating a battery to keep the message from dying out, properly recording and transmitting the message..."

"I see where this is going. There's also launching it from a remote enough place that we don't draw unwarranted attention to ourselves in all of this."

"As far as the launching point goes, I'd say either way out in the middle of the continent or over one of the oceans would be our best bet. If any Grimm decide to show up, we'd either kill them or they'd be gutted by anyone that tries investigating." Looking over a few of the links as he conversed with his partner, Raoul bookmarked a few spots to check out in the coming days.

For right now, it was time to get some rest. Closing his Scroll and setting it off to the side, he made himself as comfortable as he could be before dozing off.

**Torchwick's Hideaway, Unknown Time**

Roman Torchwick testily ended his call, slamming his Scroll down onto the table. Looks like Cinder was upping the amount of Dust that needed to be stolen, and combining this with a few of the Dust Stores in Vale catching onto his methods, it equaled one stressful night. Supposedly these acquisitions were going to go towards persuading someone to join her cause, but that didn't help him feel any better.

Reaching into his coat and grabbing a cigar, he lit it up as two of the Axe Gang grunts entered the room, pulling a trolley behind them. Well, seems they managed to do their work rather well. Amazing what could be accomplished when you had competent help, and nobody to interfere. It had taken some serious negotiating and more than a few greased palms for Junior to be willing to part with his more competent members.

"Open it up." He told the second grunt as he slid over the requesite Lien. The suit-clad human did so, opening the crate on the trolley to reveal tons of Dust crystals of varying quality. "We're going to need more men..."

Over on the nearest wall was a map of Vale. Various areas had notes next to their respective districts, mostly pertaining to which cops were competent and which ones could be bought off, but the highest note of concern was the circled area - Beacon Academy. Cinder must've held one hell of a grudge against the Academy, if it factored into her whole thing. Then again, the place was only the best Hunter Academy on Remnant... if it was somehow taken down, there'd be such a lower amount of interference that it'd make doing his business laughibly easy.

He dismissed the grunts, but had them spread a warning to keep an open eye for anyone that might disrupt the operation like what happened with the other Axe-Gang members. As he took a drag from his cigar, he took his Scroll and prepared to head back to his other safehouse. The next few months were going to be busy ones.

**Wednesday, March 9, 8:43 A.M.**

As the days went by, Raoul took to exploring more of Vale's Residential District, in the hopes of finding a location that was relatively unoccupied, scanning from west to east across the Kingdom. He got his wish, all right - the southeast end of the Residential District was looking more and more vacant the further in he went. Houses were empty, several of them even had plant life growing right up the sides, the streets and sidewalks looked like they'd seen better days as grass was peeking up through the cracks... much further ahead, he could seen several chain-link fences locked up, with signs posted over them. Further beyond the fences were the ruins of old highrises, shops and other former domiciles that looked like they'd seen better years.

The words "KEEP OUT" were spraypainted across the original text... "Mountain Glenn."

'_Whoa... what happened here?_'

Now curious about this, he popped his Scroll open to look up the locale. It took a little time for the information to come in, given the CCT was a fair distance away.

'_Mountain Glenn... let's see what we have here._' He flicked his finger vertically across the screen, scrolling the relevant page as he took in the information.

Mountain Glenn had been Vale's first serious expansion project, as an image of several construction efforts going on at the same time would prove. Making use of an underground transport system to bypass the Grimm and increase commute to and from the kingdom, things had been looking pretty rosy for the new expansion as its population swelled and the settlement continued to improve. Unfortunately, as there were few to no natural barriers to keep the Grimm at bay, the smoke monsters kept coming in constant numbers until the city's defenses were inevitably overwhelmed.

As a last-ditch effort to save the area, the residents took to the tunnels that were initially dug out for their subway, and took refuge there, setting up an elaborate underground town. It looked like buildings and other living spaces were carved into the subterranean walls. Sadly, an explosion meant to help in expansion efforts opened the way into another cavern that had been filled with subterranean Grimm, dooming the town. When word of this got out, the tunnels were sealed off. The place remained as a constant reminder of the Grimm's everpresent danger.

'_...morbid. Still, if there's nobody that wants to live down around here..._' Despite the situation that lead to this, he figured this might be ideal for a base - with the area being so desolate, he could easily slip in and out without anyone noticing. Sure, it'd take a few more seconds to get to the central areas, but that was a minor detail, one easily compensated for. For that matter, if there was another way to get to the underground areas, that'd be much more room for expansion, provided he took out whatever Grimm decided to come sniffing around.

Putting a personal bookmark to check out more of these abandoned houses later, he headed back towards the Commercial District. One of the restaurants should be open by now...

**Commercial District, 10:01 A.M.**

Grabbing a bite at an out of the way eatery, Raoul popped his Scroll back open to check with any local information hubs on the CCT.

Seems that Torchwick guy had struck once again, hitting up a few places within the Upper Class District before moving back down towards other areas of the Commercial District. For all of this being done by a single person, the places were adding up ridiculously fast. Dust prices were likely going to raise again, as more than a few disgruntled comments would attest to.

'_Normally, I'd ask how he hasn't been caught yet, but considering that red woman is apparently backing him with those suits, I get the feeling the police wouldn't be much help._'

'_Looks like the only break they got was the tip I left 'em. Still, if he's going to be at this some more, I'd welcome the chance to deny them those resources._'

'_Guess I know what we're doing tonight._'

Exiting the cafe after paying for his generously sized breakfast, he did his best to blend into the crowd... yeah, good luck with that. Guys that are seven feet tall are something of a rarity in Vale. Ignoring what few people did decide to gape, he headed back towards the Residential District to better map out a course towards the area he had scoped out.

During this time he stopped by a few electronics shops on his way, checking to see what all they had available. While the bits relegated to vehicular systems weren't of much help at this moment in time, the parts from scrapped and broken Scrolls proved more interesting. About 60 Lien later and he was on his way out, the scrap components secured neatly in a bag.

A shadow passed over him as he exited another shop, drawing his attention skyward. One of those Bullheads was on the move towards the Industrial District, likely to drop off any construction supplies if the immense container being held up by two hooks and some cable on its underside were any indication.

'_...now there's an idea._'

'_What, we nab one of those jets? Where'd you even park it?_'

'_Considering nobody else resides around the extreme south-east, should be easy enough to clear out a landing spot. 'Sides, if that woman and her accomplices can get ahold of one, what's stopping us from doing the same?_'

'_A number of things, such as where these jets come from and what security could be present._'

'_Which is why we appropriate one from her forces and see what we have to use. The less she gets to work with, the better._'

His business concluded for the time being, he popped his Scroll open to check for any extermination requests from the Agricultural District. About seven had been posted, with three of them currently taken. Might as well grab one or two and get some more cash.

It was as he was on his way south that he swore he was being watched. He cast a quick look around, but saw nothing that would indicate someone or something was looking at him.

'_Maybe I'm imagining it._' He continued on. Meanwhile, a dark-colored bird flew off.

**Vale, Industrial District, 5:39 P.M.**

One last round of police officers made their way through the southern end of the district, checking over the various warehouses and marking down which places were empty and which were being used for official business.

Sadly, what this sweep had missed was double-checking any places that had been previously marked. There was a reason Roman had "Dumb Cops" marked for this particular section. Those morons had walked right past the current hideaway he had been using at least six times. Still, wasn't like he was going to complain at all, what with the recent hits he had made.

Shifting targets to the Upper-class District had been the best call on his part. While Junior's men were busy causing a ruckus elsewhere, that let him move around pretty much hassle-free to continue hitting up the higher-end Dust shops. The fact that these guys were much quicker on the draw about grabbing the goods and getting out of dodge was also a plus in his books. Add in him quickly jumping districts whilst the police were tied up investigating elsewhere, and it all added up to successful ventures.

'_Speaking of Dust, Neo should be reporting in about the next big shipment._'

With him hitting up all the different places across Vale, requests for more of the stuff was approaching an all-time high, driving prices so much higher. It was only bound to keep increasing, something that Cinder seemed all too gleeful about... well, about as gleeful as she'd allow herself to be seen as.

His Scroll pinged right on cue, and as he opened it up, he saw that Neo was indeed the sender of a new message.

{Hey Roman- turns out there's gonna be a big Schnee shipment headed your way sometime in the next two months or so.} A rare smile graced his lips. He could always count on her to be reliable.

{Any details on where it's going to be delivered at?} He tapped out the message, then sent it. A minute later, her reply reached him.

{Considering what happened to their prior train shipments, this next one will be by ship.} The docks weren't too far from his current hideaway. That'd make it easy to grab the Dust when it arrives and make a clean getaway... well, so long as there wasn't any interference.

{Excellent. I'll see you in a bit - just got one last place to hit up for the night.}

{Seeya at the usual place. :)} With that, he closed the Scroll. As he pocketed it, he grabbed his cane and headed for the front doors. "All right, it's showtime. Hop to it."

After making certain the police presence had ceased, Roman lead several Axe Gang troops out for another hit on some Dust Shops.

**Vale Commercial District, 6:05 P.M.**

Exiting the Agricultural District with some extra Lien in his pocket, Raoul began heading back into the city to grab a bite to eat. However, that was soon spoiled by the sounds of something resembling either gunfire or explosions. Following the sounds, he soon found who or what was causing the ruckus.

There were several people...more members of the Axe Gang. In comparison to the earlier members that he had taken out, these ones had discarded their usual red blades and hatchets in favor of what looked like sleek, newly designed guns. Their shades were more a shade of blue, and their suits looked a touch more immaculate.

'_Hold the damn phone, aren't they..._' His companion didn't get much of a chance to finish her inquiry, as the gang members were plenty busy hitting up a number of places in the district, scattering the people before them. On closer inspection, it looked like they were only hitting certain shops, breaking in and grabbing several items... no, not items, but Dust.

'_Dunno, but if they're active this is our chance._' Gun already drawn, he moved in quickly, and once he was at enough range, he fired low, aiming to graze them in their legs to disable them.

The shots rang out, catching the members' attention, only for several of them to drop as their thighs became the unfortunate recipients of some lead. Those that had seen their comrades fall turned their gazes towards the seven foot tall blur that was bearing down on them.

"Oh shit!"

"Already?!"

Several opened fire with their own guns, but this blur swiftly dodged the dust cartridge fire, and within seconds was already within melee range.

Several of them clicked something on their guns, and as they moved forward to engage this being, several blades emerged from certain compartments within the firearms. One tried to swipe horizontally with his blade, only for this being to leap back and suddenly surge forward with a punch to the jaw, sending that poor unfortunate soul flying into several of his comrades, knocking them to the street. Two others tried to stab him in unison, only for him to kick the guns out of their hands and close the distance in less than an eyeblink. The both of them soon had the wind knocked out of them, one getting a fist to their gut, the other getting elbowed in the chest. One particularly brave soul attempted to punch him, but his hand was caught, and he was flung bodily onto the pavement, knocking him out cold.

A few others decided to try and fire at him again, setting their guns to automatic fire. To their horror, this guy, whomever he was, deflected the rounds that had gotten close with his hand... his bare hand, at that. Seeing that was more than enough incentive for them to pack it up and get the hell out of there.

'_That's right... run, and give us a lead._' The sounds of sirens could be heard in the distance, closing in. As the conscious gang members scattered, leaving their unconscious brethren to be picked up by Vale Police, Raoul decided to tail them from a different perspective. Time to go roof-hopping.

Several Vale Police cars sped into the area, the officers at the wheel calling for medical and prisoner transportation vehicles as they took in the scene before them. The area was quickly being cordoned off, and witnesses were being asked to provide some testimony as to what was going on.

The reports they got from the people were turning out very interesting.

"This guy was like a blur - I dunno how fast he was moving, but he took down those gang people in a single hit apiece!"

"I've never seen a Hunter able to deflect gunfire with their bare hand like that." That one got their attention. Not very many Hunters would ever choose to deflect a bullet, much less with their bare hand. Even with Aura, it was one hell of a risk.

As they asked the eyewitnesses for any distinguishing details regarding this being, there was a pattern emerging. The person in question was a tall brunette, and as more details came in...

**Industrial District, 6:31 P.M.**

The Axe Gang members that had quickly fled from the Commercial District piled into one of the warehouses. A couple of minutes later, Torchwick walked in with his ill-gotten gains, his members with him.

"You're all back early." Roman did a quick headcount of the grunts that had returned from their end of things. "Though there seems to be a few less of you... someone get cold feet?"

"A Hunter, Roman!" One of the senior gang members retorted.

"You said to keep an eye out for Hunters, not that we'd have to fight them!" Another shouted, adding to the growing ire in the room.

'_This just keeps getting better and better._' Roman took a moment to compose himself. "Were you followed?"

"What?"

"Were. You. Followed." Torchwick made certain to repeat his question slowly. "Did this Hunter tail you?"

"We didn't see him trailing us, if that's what you're asking." And that cast the die.

"Grab everything you can - we're going to have to switch locales in case we got a smart one."

As he directed the gang members to quickly grab the stockpiles of Dust and weaponry, he lit up another one of his favorite cigars to help calm his nerves. Cinder wasn't going to like hearing about this, not after the previous bust, but right now he needed to salvage this situation. If this could be saved, then there'd be no problem whatsoever.

Roughly half an hour later, the warehouse's contents were packed up in several small getaway vehicles, and were ready to move them to the new location. After doing a quick check to ensure the police weren't going to cotton onto their movement, they began moving their supplies.

They would split up the move into multiple groups, so as to keep attention to a minimum.

"If need be, duck into one of the numbered warehouses on the map - the police isn't smart enough to double-check those ones."

**District Border, 7:02 P.M.**

After a few detours and double-checks to make certain he was going the correct way, Raoul had tailed one of the groups to the border between the districts, keeping far back enough and staying downwind to ensure he didn't draw attention to himself. Leading this particular group was none other than the suited character they had seen at the previous bust, and the biometrics confirmed it was Torchwick.

'_He really doesn't give up..._'

'_Probably that crimson woman's doing._'

'_Guess she must have some serious dirt on him, if he's still doing this._'

Raoul quickly ducked behind some old shipping crates as Torchwick walked by, muttering something about annoying Hunters and their interference. He waited about two to three more minutes for Torchwick to vacate the area. '_Still, it's a hell of a plan. If I had to guess, the suits are the diversion._'

'_We can puzzle motives later. Right now, we need to appropriate that stuff._'

'_Fair enough. Time to go to work._' Undoing his eyepatch, he let the obsidian flames coat himself once more, his eye changing color from orange to yellow.

'_Won't this be a bit overkill?!_'

'_It'll be fine. As you've seen before, I know how to pull my punches. Besides, they won't be able to retaliate against what they can't see._' The transformation complete, Belderiver took center stage tonight.

Keeping to the shadows, he snuck around to the sides of the warehouse, looking for something that could control the power to the place. No such luck, it would seem... the master control for the power was likely inside the building.

'_Time for Plan B, then._'

Finding a few loose pieces of rubble, mostly ones as small as basic gravel, he leapt up to the upper windows, finding one that overlooked the interior, and had a good view of the lights.

In contrast to when he had taken down the Axe Gang members several days prior, as the news had called them, there were easily multiple times more gang members in here. He could count at least thirty or so of them down there, a mix of the ones from before and these new ones, which he had to guess were higher-ups in the gang. From what he could see, they were each armed with one of those guns and a melee weapon, either their trademark sword or hatchet-axe, though some were being briefed in using a longer model of the aforementioned melee weapons. Many of them were busy looking over the various stolen goods that had been acquired in their earlier heist. One or two others had been using their own Scrolls, likely to update whomever was in charge of this bunch about the current situation.

Slowly opening one of the upper-floor windows, he cradled a couple of small rocks in each of his index fingers, thumbs ready to flick. Ready... steady... careful... wait for the Scrolls to be closed up...

'_Fire!_' The thumbs flicked outwards, propelling the small rocks forward with the relative speed of a bullet from a gun. The grunts below had but a fraction of a second to react to the sound of something whistling through the air before the rocks harshly impacted the lights, destroying them and flooding the warehouse in darkness.

"The hell?!"

"The lights!"

"Who did that?"

'_Showtime._' The window now open enough to fit himself through, Belderiver entered the warehouse and dropped down to take them out. The grunts, unable to adjust to the new darkened setting so quickly, weren't quite able to see their new assailant, due to him being black on black. Three of them were immediately taken down via something landing on them, and two more soon followed when the wind got knocked from them thanks to a good fist in the midsection.

"Light him up!" Several gang members quickly loaded their guns, and after taking a moment to adjust their hearing, tried to scope out where their enemy was.

One grunt screamed as he felt his foot get wrapped by something and yank him to the floor, gun firing wildly in a panic. The other grunts tried firing in his direction, but it was for naught, the sparks richocheting off the walls revealing that he was no longer there. Another yelled out as he felt a hand constrict his throat and pull him to the upper walkways, where the consciousness was soon stripped from him.

Two more spun around as they felt something behind them, only to have the backs of their necks harshly grasped by someone, and their skulls forced to collide with each others', knocking them out.

"Who the hell's there!" One of the gang members yelled, not liking this situation. He got a reply via fist to his face, sending him to the floor. Two more grunts tried firing, only to get kicked down.

"Screw this!" One grunt exclaimed, and bolted for the warehouse door. That same whistling sound could be heard, and he felt something small impact the base of his neck, stripping the consciousness from him as he impacted the floor.

One by one, the Axe Gang members were dropping. Soon, there was naught but one remaining grunt still conscious, one of the lower-ranking members.

"W-who's there? W-why are you d-doing this?!" Their hands were shaking pretty badly, only having the barest grip on their gun. "Show yourself!"

"**Boo.**" A downright terrifying voice came from the grunt's right side, and as they felt their heart leap into their chest and their blood freeze, they spun around to try and catch a glimpse of whomever this was, only to see a terrifying yellow eye staring back at them. It proved too much for the grunt's mind to handle, and as their own eyes rolled into the back of their head, they collapsed to the ground.

'_Was that really necessary?_' His companion asked as Belderiver faded away to reveal Raoul once more.

'_Won't lie, always wanted to do that at least once._' Regardless of his methods, the operation was again a success. The grunts were out cold, leaving the warehouse free and open to be investigated.

'_Damn, look at this stuff... this is a LOT more Dust than last time._' One large crate was full to the brim with plenty of Dust, and if the way the crystals looked was an indication, these ones were pretty high-quality. It also held that snowflake emblem on one side, indicating it belonged to that Schnee company.

'_And check these weapons... not quite like what the Netherworld has, but they look pretty solid._' Raoul looked over one of the guns that the gang members had, taking note of its Dust-cartridge system and the blade that folded out for melee engagements. '_Stuff like this would easily start one hell of a riot._'

With the locale secured, it was time to leave another tip for the Vale Police. Before that...

**Thursday, Southern Commercial District**

**March 10, 8:24 A.M.**

Rousing himself from the rather soft sheets, Raoul slid out of bed and went to don his gear.

After his heist against the Axe-Gang, he headed straight back to the Commercial District and booked a room at one of the local hotels. With it now morning, he took to checking over his newly acquired gains.

From the grunts' pockets, he had taken close to 2500 Lien, most of that coming from the higher-ups in the operation. Together with what he had left over from getting food and finding a place to get his clothing fixed up, that left him close to 5800 Lien overall after having payed for a room for the night.

'_So, what's our next move?_' His companion inquired.

'_We scope out some of the places down around the southeast near that Moutain Glenn road. Betting at least one or two of them have to be decently liveable.._'

Returning his roomkey to the front desk, he left the hotel and headed down the sidewalk towards the southern end of the District.

**Across Vale, 9:00 A.M.**

"Lisa Lavender here, with a Vale News Network Special Report."

The broadcast changed from showing the violet-haired woman to the image of a card, text neatly typed out upon it. The news banner below read: Mystery Hunter Strikes Again?

"Shortly before 9:00 P.M. yesterday night, another anonymous tip came in reporting suspicious behavior in the Industrial District. This note was found on several Vale Police Cruisers, reading as such..."

Text of the note appeared on-screen as Lisa read it aloud.

"To The Police - Check Warehouse 7564 in the Industrial District, close to the border of the Agricultural District. You may wish to bring multiple men for this."

"When Police arrived on the scene-" The broadcast changed once more, showing the warehouse in question, "-they were greeted with quite the sight. Around 30 Axe Gang members had been identified within the warehouse, alongside multiple cases of high-quality Dust and weaponry."

The Axe Gang members were shown on-screen as laying out in a pile, several members each tied up. From what could be discerned, someone or something had taken them out with little effort.

"While this proves to be an incredible break in the recent theft string across Vale, concerns are being raised, not only in regards to criminal activity, but also regarding the identity of this potential vigilante, and why they have not come forward about their assistance..."

Roman had been in the middle of taking a drink when the report got to the part about the Axe Gang having been taken out, and his morning beverage was soon violently expelled through his nostrils. Combine this with said beverage being a Mistrali wine that he was very fond of...

"Agh-gah-" Grabbing a nearby paper towel, he did what he could to clean himself up, taking a few breaths to try and rid himself of the burning sensation of fine wine upon areas of his body it was never meant to go. Taking another look at the TV though watering eyes, he saw that the acquired goods were reported as being tallied up and returned to their original owners. "Motherfu-"

Looks like he was going to have to move operations _again_. He sent a pre-emptive notice to Neo, letting her know about the next move to find a new base of operations. If this was going to keep happening, he was increasingly tempted to have her take over watching the goods. A general waste of her talents, but if he were to keep Cinder from deciding to burn his face off... then again, this was just one of the storehouses. Splitting up the group to keep all of the goods from being reclaimed was a damn good idea... but then he realized. If that storehouse had been raided by some mystery person, what would stop them from deciding to check around for the others?

Grabbing his favored cane and hat, he was out the door in seconds.

Meanwhile, over at Beacon, Ozpin watched this news report with mild interest. Hunters were known to do some level of vigilantism, frowned upon though it may be, but this felt off to him. Why leave a note instead of directly contacting the Police?

And then there was the matter of what else the Police had reported. Sometime before the bust-up, someone had been seen fighting off several Gang members in the Commercial District, and according to what eyewitnesses were able to see of this mystery person, this person had brown hair, and stood incredibly tall.

'_No doubt it has to be him._' Evidence was mounting to track this character down.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:42 A.M.**

"That was quite the risk you took." Ozpin looked Nelius dead in the eye. "Though, now knowing that the criminal elements in Vale are in league with this woman whom obtained Torchwick's help..."

"Yet there has to be another reason for all of the Dust being stolen..." Ironwood had been thinking over the logistics of focusing on Dust, and they all kept pointing towards starvation tactics... with Vale deprived of these resources, the kingdom's livelihood would become more and more stressful, forcing Vale to have to pay out increasingly taxing amounts of Lien to sustain itself. At the same time, the people getting frantic over a potential Dust shortage...

As much as he didn't want to jump to that conclusion, it made sense. For now, however, he focused on listening to this man's story, internally picking apart what elements didn't sound right.

Chapter 6- Complete


	7. Chapter 7

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 7: Repair

Raoul walked down the street leading towards Mountain Glenn, eye shifting about as he took a look at the houses that lined the street. Many of the abandoned places looked as though anyone could simply walk in and begin setting up, likely a result of the mass exodus. With his Scroll open, he took to acquiring a few street maps, mainly to trace out a shortcut to and from the heart of the city. Given that the CCT was a fair ways away, that took a moment.

Heading over to the nearest one that looked unapproachable, it appeared to have been a single-story ranch style abode. The siding looked like it had survived the worst of several weather patterns, though the color was fading fast from the place overall. Time to try it out.

The front door was locked up tight, and a check at the side and back doors revealed they were also locked. Well, if the door was a no-go, perhaps a window could be jimmied loose?

One nearest the other end of the house proved loose, and after about a minute of work, the glass panel was removed, giving Raoul his entry. He was quick to put it back once he was inside, lest someone get suspicious. True, the streets leading down this way were utterly devoid of any people, but it was better to err on the side of caution.

Now inside what had to have been one of the bedrooms, he took notice of how spacious it was. Exiting this room, he took notice of another, equally spacious room right next to this one, and what seemed like a smaller office room across from it. Down the nearby hallway, there was the bathroom on the left-hand side, with a storage closet across from it.

At this junction, heading right would put him in the living room, whilst going left brought him to the kitchen. The back door and side-door were both accessible from the kitchen, and there was a stairwell leading to the basement. Said basement was also quite empty, having nothing left from its previous occupants.

A quick test of the pipes over by a slop sink proved that whomever had closed this place down didn't bother completely shutting off the water, likely due to the panic of fleeing the area years ago. An oversight on their part, but advantageous for him. Now came for the power... using his Scroll to provide some insight into how the housing worked, it looked like they'd need a few Electric Crystals to get the power back up... a crucial detail as well, since his Scroll looked to be around 32 percent power remaining.

'_Well, it's not quite what I had in mind, but this'll do. Welcome to our base._'

'_OK, but how are we to get any amenities in here? Y'know, like a fridge and whatnot- seeing someone effortlessly carry that stuff is going to raise some eyebrows..._'

'_That's why I had the back streets mapped out on my way down here. An exit strategy is always something to consider._'

Returning to the main floor, he worked the side-door lock, letting him leave the house. Time to go hunting for amenities.

**Commercial District, 11:01 A.M.**

Making his way back towards the Commercial District, he headed for the nearest Dust Shop... From Dust 'Til Dawn. Approaching the establishment, he saw a sign up that said "Currently Renovating - Open hours subject to change".

Entering, he saw powered Dust in tubes lining a far wall to his left, the nearby display case ahead showing several Dust Crystals in case, although many of the slots were currently empty. Further back and to the right were some magazines and other kinds of reading material. Manning the store was an elderly gentleman, whom had to have been somewhere between his seventies and eighties at a glance.

'_Hey, ain't he the guy who ran that noodle cart?_'

The windows were boarded up until replacements could be brought in. One of the other display cases was caved in, as if someone had jumped onto it.

'_Looks like the place is still getting fixed up. Let's speed it along a bit._'

"Good afternoon." Raoul made himself known, and the elderly shopkeep looked up. "Looking to get some Electric Dust Crystals, mostly ones that can power large equipment. Any recommendations?" That caught the shopkeep's attention.

"Mm-hhmm.." Holding up a finger as if to say "one moment", he headed into the back. It was about three minutes later that he returned with a few yellow crystals, about five or so. These ones were easily the length of someone's hand, about 7 to 9 inches. "These ones should each last you a few months at the least."

"Those'll do nicely. How much?"

The shopkeep rang up the total. 475 Lien total for the crystals, plus a carrying case to ensure they didn't get jostled too badly. A bit on the pricey side, but given what was going on with the Dust thefts, he could understand.

"Have a good day." Paying for the crystals, he placed them into the case and was on his way. It was about three minutes later that the shopkeep seemed to partially recognize the man that had walked out. He'd seen him before at the noodle cart he had on the side... no wonder he seemed familiar.

Raoul's next target was a mini-fridge, something he could carry back without arousing too much suspicion. It appeared that most appliance shops were open, though there was a refurbishing shop that would be open sometime next week, its owner having gone down to Vacuo for business. Entering the name of the place into his personal Scroll, Roshin's TV & Appliance, he saw that the place had favorable reviews, as the owner did some good work in fixing up broken units. A bookmark and reminder was set for this place when it opened.

Still, no reason not to check out the other stores and see what kind of price range existed for these items.

A secondhand shop was nearby, and a quick glance through the window showed that it dealt mainly in furniture - sofas, beds, even a few shelving units. Shifting his viewpoint a bit to his left, he saw that the place also dealt in clothing and some gently used electronics as well.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained. He entered the store...

**Residential District, 12:51 P.M.**

Slipping back into the single-story he claimed as his base, Raoul headed downstairs to deposit his purchases.

From that second-hand shop he'd gotten a hammock with a metal stand for surprisingly cheap, at about 75 Lien. An older-model holographic TV was being sold for the same price, and it came with a setup manual to tune into local broadcasts.

First thing was first - he headed over to the breaker box, and opened it up. Sure enough, the chamber for a Dust Crystal was empty, and if the regular dust on the box was an indication, this place had been out of use for years. After taking a moment to clean it as best he could, he inserted one of the crystals into the chamber, closed it back up, and then flipped the switch. A low humming sound could be heard, and to test if the power was indeed working, he attached the filched Scroll to a charger and plugged it in.

Sure enough, the charging light came on, indicating that everything was working as needed.

Next on the list was tuning the older-model TV to the local broadcasting stations. As this model didn't have a paired remote, he had to tune it in manually with the buttons on the deck. About a minute later the display showed "Now Searching", and a number began counting up. Another two minutes later, after tallying up around 45 channels, it immediately flipped to the nearest channel available... the Vale News Network.

The news was currently re-running this morning's story about the bust made in the Industrial District... his handiwork.

'_Really becoming a popular guy, aren't you, Mr. Raoul?_'

'_My old man always put it thus: if you're gonna be somewhere for a while, might as well do what you can to leave it a little better than how you found it._'

'_Y'know, of what demons I do remember, excluding our bunch, you're way different. Most of the ones I know would've probably tried global domination by now._'

'_Comes with the territory of being ripped out of your home and being forced to adjust to whatever world you've found yourself in. As some would put it, it's a humbling kind of experience, the kind that most Netherworld denizens wouldn't experience for a long time._' He tapped through the channels, seeing what all Vale had in its broadcast lineup.

Music... Cooking... Kids' shows... looked like standard fare so far. Flipping to another channel, it appeared to be a spotlight program highlighting various hotspots around the other Kingdoms. Today's Kingdom of discussion was Mistral. As this played out, Raoul took this time to set up the hammock and stand.

Located on the eastern continent of Anima, Mistral held the largest amount of territory among the four kingdoms, and thusly held multiple ecosystems and diverse cultures.

Early inhabitants took to carving out the cliffs to find shelter from the Grimm, and from there thriving cities soon began to crop up. Thanks to frequent trade with Mantle, and even learning how to form settlements on Solitas, Mistral had begun to follow Mantle's example. For a time, the arts had been banned, due to growing fears that expression was what brought in the Grimm from the other areas of the continent.

Just as earlier theorized, when Mistral made some settlements on Sanus territory, close to Vale, it was indeed cultural differences that sparked the first bout of the Great War. With Grimm attacks on the rise, many of those settlements were lost.

Mistral and Mantle were able to keep Vacuo out of the conflict, but when they began pressuring the Dust-rich kingdom to ally with them, their offer was rejected, and Vacuo allied with Vale instead, kicking off the war in earnest.

Mistral culture today was one that couldn't be tied down to a singular description. The residents of the kingdom had built their technology and culture around the natural geography and resources held within, thus holding a high respect for nature, usually of the sea and sky.

With the stand assembled and the hammock stretched out between the two anchoring points, he climbed in to make certain it'd hold. He shifted his weight about for several minutes, testing the stand.

'_All right. We are solid._' Climbing back out, he headed over to change to another channel.

'_Speaking of solid, I've been doing some more poking around the coding of the Scroll we stole from that gang member. I think I'm close to figuring out the nature of how it got rewritten._'

'_It'd make busting that Torchwick guy's operations a lot easier._'

'_More than that- if this works out like I'm hoping, we could find the bitch in the red dress and bring her down as well, considering that he's working with her._'

**Cinder's Location, unknown time**

'_Disappointing... most disappointing..._' Cinder collapsed her Scroll as the report of the bust came in. This was twice now that some rogue Hunter had managed to find Roman's operations and bring them to the Police's attention. If things were going to continue along these lines, changes would have to be made. The Dust and other supplies were crucial to carrying out this operation. The one saving grace was that Torchwick had told the Gang to fission off, to spread the supplies and other stolen goods out, minimizing the damage done to the operation.

Then again, with eyes currently on Roman and his heists, that had allowed her to move about and obtain what she needed unimpeded. The transcripts needed to carry out the next part of the plan were currently being drummed up by their informant, and with those, it'd put her much closer to where she needed to go.

She had no fondness for that man whom was working with the informant, but his work in programming and rerouting was undoubtedly genius. It'd be hard to believe that something so simple could be so damaging.

Idly, she reached into her satchel and brought out the glove. The sigil was still present on the back of the hand, meaning the specialized Insect could be summoned once again. If the Fall Maiden was being held at Beacon for her own protection... then that fool of a Headmaster couldn't have placed a bigger bullseye on the Academy if he tried. And this time, there'd be no idiot imitating a Grimm to stop her.

She would reclaim that which was long overdue to her. Obtaining the Maiden's powers was just a step towards that goal.

But for now, ensuring that Roman's Dust thefts were successful was higher on the priority list. Word was going around that thanks to Roman's efforts in Vale, the Schnee Dust Company was going to be sending a freighter loaded to the brim with Dust their way... likely their way of trying to play hero to the situation.

It was her thoughts about the incoming Dust shipment that forced her to think back on her failed attempt to recruit the White Fang for this missive... and of how that shadowy creature effortlessly manhandled her.

To say that it left a sour taste in her mouth would be understating it... because of that thing's interference there was now a new reason for her erstwhile allies to ridicule her, not to mention that her master knew that the attempt on the Fall Maiden had failed. While her reprimanding wasn't as harsh as she had imagined it being, it still stung like a Rapier Wasp. Once she had obtained the Fall Maiden's powers, that thing would be her first target.

But it was getting late in this part of the world, and she would need her rest for the next stage of the operation. She'd have to settle for dreams of incinerating that creature.

These next few months were going to be a long wait, but one that would pay off...

**Fifteen days later**

**Friday, March 25 **

**Vale Agricultural District, 3:38 P.M.**

Raoul's axe came down hard on the head of another Beowolf, silencing it for good as its head was cleaved in half vertically. Not missing a beat, he turned and unholstered his gun, firing off two quick shots that blew another Beowolf's leg and head off respectively.

One tried to get in close to swipe at him, but all that accomplished was getting a fist through its chest, silencing it for good. Removing his fist from the creature, he watched as it dissolved away. Cautiously, he looked around to see if anymore of the pack had hung back to wait out the battle. About two minutes had passed before he had determined that things were complete.

"Looks like that's the last of 'em." Raoul holstered his weapons as he headed back towards the request poster to collect his pay for the under the table job. Said poster was one of the Agricultural District farmers, a slightly portly gentleman whom had been getting a touch leery of any Grimm getting too close, and had decided to shell out a bit extra for some pre-emptive action.

With his payment received, Raoul headed back up towards the Commercial District. From the chatter among the people on the streets, excitement for the Vytal Festival was picking up pretty intensely, many businesses and other storefronts already beginning to create decorations and other related items. Popping his Scroll open, he decided to check out what all the buzz was for this Festival. He had heard of the term back when he first landed, but a refresher would help.

Named for the island north of Vale where the treaty to end the Great War was signed, the Vytal Festival was a biennial gathering that held the purpose of celebrating all of Remnant's diverse cultures, as questions regarding individuality and self-expression were catalysts to the Great War.

Whichever kingdom was host to the Festival would open its borders to visitors from the various other kingdoms, as several images from the other Kingdoms attested to. One of the biggest draws of the Festival was the Hunter Tournament held in the Amity Colosseum, an immense, floating arena that was created with resources from all four kingdoms.

Several more images of prior tournaments were posted, showing prior students engaging in combat against other participants from the other kingdoms.

Up to 32 teams from the Academies would participate, but should a team advance to the next round, they would have to elect which two team members would advance. Should that team win once more, they'd have but a single member representing them in the finals division.

'_So to celebrate a war's ending, they decided to beat the shit outta each other? Are we certain these humans don't have any kind of demonic blood somewhere in their family trees?_'

'_It certainly does sound like a bit of a glorified bloodsport when you put it that way. I wonder how this is supposed to promote unity._' He ultimately shrugged as he continued to look over the information. '_Guess we'll understand more about this whole thing when it arrives...let's see here... according to the date, it's not for another four to five months, give or take a week or two for other preparations._'

'_Must be something huge if they're preparing for it this early._'

'_Perhaps. Still, we got our own business to attend to._' Closing the page that had the information about the festival, he turned his thoughts towards the acquisition of other electronic parts. Aside from hopefully rigging something up that could be space-worthy, there was also his gauntlets to consider. If they could be fixed up, it'd give him access to the extra functions.

He'd need to go back to his base and disassemble his gauntlets to figure out which parts needed replacing overall if he was going to repair them.

There was also, of course, keeping tabs on any more of those robberies. Sure, he could have let the Vale Police handle it, but they'd already proven a touch incompetent since he had to do most of the legwork and provide the coordinates to tell them "Hey, go here and check this out".

He began heading back towards his base. Along the way there, he made a quick stop to pick up a few items.

**Residential District, 6:52 P.M.**

Slipping back into his unofficial base, Raoul headed downstairs, bag in hand with his new purchases, and a collapsable table held tightly beneath his arm. Upon entering the basement he set the bag down near his hammock and set the small table up. Opening the bag right afterwards, he pulled out a lightbulb and installed it into one of the overhead fixtures.

A quick test proved the connection was strong, and with that he dug back into his bag and withdrew a toolkit, setting it on the small table alongside his gauntlets.

'_It has been a good while since I last disassembled these things._' With that, he opened the toolkit and grabbed one of the tools inside. Time to go to work.

Hours would fly by as he disassembled each part of the gauntlets, seperating the components into different piles. The circuitry components were undoubtedly shot, and would need replacing.

'_Yeesh. These look like they've seen better days._'

'_That's putting it lightly. Combine this with the inability to get the proper replacement parts and all the fighting I had to do afterwards..._' He took the non-electronic pieces of the gauntlets and began cleaning them out, getting rid of weeks of built-up dust and other errata.

'_What all were these supposed to do?_'

'_Well, back in the realm I was in before everything went down with our group, there were multiple combat machines that were rampaging about - nobody had any idea as to what drew them up. Either way, after engaging some of them in battle I took notice of what capabilities they had, so I got the idea to integrate some of them into units that could be used for protection._'

He fiddled with some of the casing for the fingers, taking them apart.

'_These things were multi-purpose. Protective shielding units in the palms, which could be combined to create a disruptor field, the fingers could project either a small laser blade, an ice beam or fire bullets... I'm pretty sure some of these features can still be used, but I'd rather fix up the components first before I give them a try._'

'_Huh. And these were for others' use?_'

'_More for the people that lacked the outright strength to combat some of the denizens I met over there. Some of 'em were allright kinda characters, but others... yeah, these would've been an immense boon. Last I remember, some of the people I worked with still have the design notes we drummed up, so they might have a newer version floating around._'

'_No foolin'?_'

'_I hope so, at the very least. Things got downright weird over there._'

Raoul chanced a glance out one of the windows, seeing the moon high up in the sky. A quick look at his Scroll told him it was 10:25 P.M. already. Opening up a messaging application, he began noting down what circuitry to look for in Remnant to get his gauntlets back up to full capacity.

'_OK... couplings for the power supply, more connectors to get the functions flowing... and of course extra metal to weld over the tears._'

Deciding that he would put it back together once he got the necessary parts, he closed his Scroll and climbed into his hammock. Might as well pass a little time through sleep.

**Saturday, March 26, 6:29 A.M. **

Raoul's eye shot open, mere minutes before sunrise.

'_That's it!_' His surprise outburst startled his companion awake.

'_Eh? What's it?_'

'_The solution we've been looking for. We've already got our best option right here... how did I not see this sooner?_'

'_...context?_'

'_You're a Desco-unit, and they're technical cyborgs, right?_'

'_Yeah. What of... wait, are you suggesting..._'

'_That's right._' He raised his left arm. '_The graft you turned yourself into... it might take some time to potentially __grow__ the parts, but if these can be reliably created and crafted, then we've got our ticket right here._'

About ten seconds passed before his companion spoke up.

'_...huh, that idea never crossed my mind. Though, assuming my transformed state is able to cultivate the parts we need, how do you intend to get them once they're done?_'

To that, Raoul summoned out his left wing, shaping it into a knife-like point.

'_Might have to cut it open to get the cultivated parts, but it's a minor point in comparison._' Had his companion's face been visible, it would've blanched right now.

'_Won't lie, not exactly fond of getting put to the knife again, but if it'll help us get home, then best to get it over with when the time comes... so, what all parts are we looking at cultivating for this?_'

To that, Raoul flipped out of his hammock and headed over to get his Scroll. Opening it up, he flipped through to find the notes.

'_First and foremost, we'll need the internal workings to carry the message, mostly the circuitry for the power and a recording unit to actually hold the message. Then there's the wireless transmitter to send the message out._' Flipping through the notes, he carefully read each necessary part, making certain his companion could see and understand what was needed.

'_Mmmm... if I rush it I could get them done in about a week or two._' To that, he shook his head.

'_I'd say take your time to carefully craft them. While I'd like to ensure everyone else is doing fine, a rush job could easily end up overlooking a vital detail that could compromise the situation. Also, with these being in our arm, rushing it could cause something to break, especially when we end up in the middle of action._'

'_Fair enough... Say, you think these components could also be used to repair your gauntlets?_' At that, Raoul froze for a moment, the gears turning in his head.

'_It'd be worth a shot. There are considerably less parts needed for them, so we could treat their repair as our test run._' Heading over to his still disassembled gauntlets, he flipped his Scroll to the notes containing what parts would need replaced or repaired, allowing his companion to read them.

'_Looking it over...these should be easy. Gimme 'til the end of the day to create these._' There was a feeling of something... shifting within his left arm, being pieced together. It was in several spots along his arm, ranging from his wrist to somewhere above the crook of his elbow.

'_I don't think I'm ever gonna get used to that._'

With that out of the way, Raoul found himself now wide awake. So, what to do now? Might as well check the local news for any information and wait for some extermination requests to come in.

'_So far, no reports of any more robberies... but I honestly doubt the crimson bitch is giving up so easily, not if she has that group at her beck and call._'

'_Guessing we'll just need to wait for them to strike again._'

Looks like another trip through the city was on tap. Might as well get some exercise in.

**Beacon Academy, 7:32 A.M.**

Ozpin brought up his desk's monitor once more as he did a quick check for any urgent messages.

First up was a message from Qrow. He opened it up.

Hey Oz, it's me.

Leads are running a bit dry in trying to find out whomever it was that decided to go after the Autumn Maiden. I got about one more end to try here in Mistral before I try heading down to Vacuo to search for clues. I'll be in touch if anything comes up... also Leo's been more panicky than usual. Betting it's stress.

Ozpin had figured as much - a methodical enemy such as them wouldn't leave behind many tracks. At the same time, Leonardo was probably fretting over how few leads there were in this case. A Maiden getting assaulted out of the blue, especially one he had been in recent contact with would put anyone ill at ease.

Up next was a report from Atlas.

_To Headmaster Ozpin,_

_The Autumn Maiden, Amber, has successfully reached our borders as of two nights prior. While the current population appears to regard her as merely a passer-through, after considering your report on the attack around five months prior, I must suggest a vigil over her, if not having her guarded around the clock._

_James Ironwood_

The Headmaster of Beacon sighed. If Amber was able to be identified by the enemy so easily, then having guards would draw even more attention to her. He'd have to give James a reply, else the Atlas Headmaster might end up going through with his idea.

_To Headmaster Ironwood,_

_While I understand your wish to have Miss Amber guarded around the clock, drawing too much attention to her would be a detriment to her overall safety and security. If you wish to maintain a vigil over her, I would suggest a more subtle approach, so as not to cause her any undue stress or potentially draw her assailants' attention. I'm more than certain you have long-range surveillance easily capable of keeping tabs on her._

_Ozpin_

Message sent, now that left other business to attend to.

**The Base, 6:34 P.M.**

Raoul laid his left arm onto the small table, wrist facing him as he began forming a wing from his back and sharpening it to a point. The shifting sensation in his arm had stopped a while ago, his companion confirming that the parts for the test run were ready to be extracted.

'_Here goes..._' With a steadying breath he plunged the sharpened wing into his left arm, piercing the green flesh closest to his elbow. Slowly, he dragged the wing up towards his wrist, opening it up to expose an intertwined fusion of organic circuitry, muscles, bone and nerves. With his arm now opened up, he split the wing, using it to hold his arm open whilst the other wing shifted into something resembling forceps. '_All right, now to extract the parts._'

'_Up a little below the wrist..._' His companion was guiding him to which new growths were the ones crafted for the gauntlets' repair. '_Down from there, bit to the right... wha, too far!_'

'_Oops, sorry about that._'

'_Now for the last one, down to about midway, then on the left... got it!_' As the last piece was extracted from his arm, he laid it on the table beside the other parts of the gauntlet. Much like the arm they were extracted from, they were small green masses of flesh mixed with red circuitry lines, though more resembling the latter. With the extraction complete, Raoul focused a Heal spell onto the inflicted open wound after using his wing to hold it closed, slowly trailing his right hand down the left arm from wrist to elbow. The process took him about ten to fifteen seconds, as he was making certain the incision would close properly. He then flexed his fingers, closed his hand into a fist, and rotated his wrist around, mainly to test for any discomfort that would've arisen from the extraction.

'_So far, everything feels all right._' With that complete, he took the extracted components and began to try and fit them into place in his gauntlets' inner workings. The new components, upon being placed in their spots, began to fuse with the older circuitry and spread.

With the new components in place on his left gauntlet, he took a moment to see if the power supply still ran, even after all this time. He didn't want to fully assemble it, only to have to take it apart again because something went wrong. After slipping the skeleton onto his left hand, he clicked a small switch nearest the battery compartment, and straightened his hand out.

A strange shield began to form from the palm of the gauntlet's inner workings. He quickly shut down the power, then slipped it back off.

'_That's a good sign. We'll need to go further south if we want to test the other features - don't need to let loose a gunshot and wake up half the damn neighborhood._'

'_No time like the present. With it getting late, most people shouldn't see us._'

Collecting the remains of the gauntlets into the Dust Case, he made his way out of his base and towards the southern end of the kingdom.

**Wilds, 6:57 P.M.**

Figuring they should be far enough south to not draw any attention, Raoul set down the case and extracted the skeleton of his gauntlet. Slipping it over his left hand once more, he aimed at a tree, clicked a small switch nearest the power supply and extended all four fingers towards it. Bullets made of energy flew forth, ricocheting off the trunk if they didn't sink into it.

'_Beautiful. Now for the other functions._' Curling his other fingers down so that only his index finger remained pointing, he clicked the switch to a different function. An icy-cold beam shot out, hitting the tree and partially freezing it over. Not skipping a beat, he flicked the switch to another function, and a 45-centimeter laser blade emerged, a dark blue in color. '_Well, that's a wonderful feeling. Now to get the other gauntlet fixed up._'

'_Wouldn't it also have the same features as this one?_'

'_Certainly would, but as I said before, the shield units could be combined for a disruptor unit._' He switched off the laser blade and opened up the case to begin work on reassembling his right hand gauntlet.

'_I gotcha._'

'_Also, given how long it's been since I last had the chance to use these functions, this is also a test of the battery itself. No real telling how much power they have left._'

In practically no time at all, the right hand gauntlet's skeleton was formed back up, and as he donned it and tested out its other features, he found them to match the performance of the left hand. The damage was more or less symmetrical, so finding what to fix was easy enough.

Now came for the big test. Pointing both palms inward, he focused as a technological shield began to form between them. As he moved his palms apart, the shield began to grow, and when he thrust his palms towards that poor tree, the shield flew forward until it impacted the tree and shattered like glass.

'_Nice._'

'_There's one other function, but I shouldn't use up too much more of the battery._' Placing the skeletons back into the case, he made his way back to base.

**The Base, 7:28 P.M.**

Slipping back into his temporary base of operations, Raoul headed downstairs to begin piecing the gauntlets back together. Since his personal magic was still able to work, he could simply weld the gash on his gauntlets' palms shut himself.

'_All in all I think this was a good run. We know we've got the ability to make the parts, though the more important thing is how you're holding up._'

'_What with that being my first attempt at doing so, I think I'm gonna need a bit more time to fine tune the crafting process if we want to try that again. And if I might be honest, we'll need that extra study time._'

Raoul focused a strong flame on his right hand's index finger, and slowly dragged it across the palm of his gauntlets' outer casing.

'_Agreed. If we're going to make the items to send the message out, we'll need to check some of the other shops to get parts that we can study._'

'_That, and since these are being crafted directly from me, we're gonna need a lotta energy for it._'

'_...explains why I feel hungry again. If just the gauntlet parts took this much energy to craft..._' The heat began to soften and melt the metal back together, closing the gashes.

'_Well, hopefully fine-tuning the process should increase the efficiency, thus lessening the drain when we make these._'

The gashes were finally closed, and he tapered off on the heat in favor of shaping the metal back together. Now the skeletons could be fitted back into the casings once the metal was cooled off. That would take a little while, so now might be a good time to open up the mini-fridge and get himself a drink.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 10:49 A.M.**

"Otherworldly technology..." Ironwood's mind was running through several scenarios at once, his eyes looking over the gauntlets that Nelius had handed over prior to the investigation, as was custom in Vale. Certainly Atlas had the know-how to replicate such designs. Gauntlets such as those could easily be used to save more lives on the battlefield, especially if they could be combined with the upcoming Atlesian Knight models.

"Truthfully, after this, the trail went kind of cold for a while." Nelius admitted. "There was the occasional small hit here and there against whatever heists Torchwick was pulling off, but it wasn't until about three months or so later that things picked back up."

"...the incident at the docks." Ozpin zeroed in on the most likely candidate, to which Nelius nodded. "Seems that attempted heist was the catalyst for quite a number of things these past few months."

Of course, Ozpin had been thinking as to how one of his student teams had been there ever so coincidentially, alongside two of the other students that had come for the Vytal Festival.

"Well then, let's hear your take on that incident." Ironwood suggested.

Chapter 7 - Complete


	8. Chapter 8

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"  
'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Break**

Chapter 8: Second Strike

Vytal Festival preparations were steadily increasing all throughout Vale as the months went by. Signs were going up, balloons were weaved into arcs above the lamps, and it appeared that many local places were getting new menus and stock prepared.

Of course, students from the various other Hunter Academies had begun filtering into the kingdom over the past few weeks, and whilst some would be heading to Beacon Academy to reside in any unfilled dorm rooms, others would be taking up residence with either family already living here in Vale or staying within any local hotels on a slight discount.

'_Bit of a shame they're popping in whilst all this is going on._' Raoul thought to himself as he headed along the streets, taking in the sights of what all decorations had been prepared. '_Even if the robberies have been getting more police focus..._'

His actions over the past few weeks apparently lit a bit of a fire in some of the police force, as reports started coming in of how some officers had been setting up sting operations to try and catch Torchwick in the process. Looked like they were getting tired of someone showing them up.

**One such Sting, Commercial District**

**Monday, April 18, 9:34 P.M.**

Something of a small firefight had broken out, as multiple Vale Police Officers were busy trying to stymie another heist.

A plain-clothes officer had taken notice of suspicious activity around one of the Schnee Outlet Stores, and their hunch had proven correct when several Gang members were beginning to break in. One quick call later and as several Officers moved in, the Gang opened fire.

Raoul had heard the gunfire, tracing the sounds back towards the source. Several officers were pinned down as about three senior Gang members were laying down suppressing fire, to let their compatriots run off with some ill-gotten gains.

'_As good a time as any to test those new features._' Flipping his Gauntlets on, Raoul took careful aim at the retreating Gang personnel with his right hand.

The gauntlet fired off a strong, icy beam that was aimed at the humans' feet, to freeze them into place. Once it hit, the ice began to spread up their bodies, disabling them from the waist down and stopping them in their tracks. Several tried using their weapons to free themselves from the sudden ice before the officers could get the jump on them.

He then turned his attention to the other Gang recruits still firing upon the Police, and used his left hand's gauntlet to fire a few shots at their guns, either to knock them out of their hands or disable the weapons entirely. This gave the officers ample time to request backup and to try subduing these ones.

Raoul was quick to make himself scarce as that requested back-up arrived, finding several humans frozen to the ground. Some emergency Fire Dust was used to thaw the gangsters out before taking them into custody.

**Present Time**

**Saturday, May 28, 10:34 A.M.**

Of course, other officers seemed to scoff at these efforts, as Torchwick had managed to elude their grasp every single time, whilst also pointing out that whomever was reclaiming his stolen goods wasn't doing a very good job of actually bringing him in. Though Torchwick proved capable of escape each and every time, many of the Dust theft operations were quickly quelled once his henchmen were subdued, leaving behind more Dust to be used for the people. Prices were still rising, though now at a much slower rate that was projected to level off within the coming month.

Searches had been going out into the Industrial District to try and locate any other hidden caches that Torchwick or the Axe Gang had stored away. While there were only a few successes, mostly small stuff that could easily be overlooked, overall some considered it a wasted effort if the mastermind couldn't be cornered and arrested.

'_Given that the robberies have been all over the news, I'd bet they came prepared._' His companion noted. '_Still, once I get this potential locator application finished, we should be able to track down the crimson bitch and her toadies._'

'_Excellent._'

'_On that, I need to ask... you're able to sense out forms of life, just like my sensor array, correct? Why not use that to track them down?_'

'_To pinpoint a specific signature requires a decent amount of time and study. No two signatures are alike, after all, and if they're the type to blend into the crowd, then the signals get mixed up for a good bit. The real issue is that the crimson bitch hasn't been showing her face around here, hence why we've been on Torchwick's heels._'

'_Fair enough._'

Well, not much to do now but check out the new arrangements that some of the stores were offering.

**Meetup Locale, unknown time**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

"Callan reporting. The information our contact provided is correct. The Schnee's shipment is due to arrive in a week or so."

Hiding at this location were several faunus, if the scant few ears and tails were an indicator. Each of them were clad in black pants, white sleeveless jackets, a sleeveless black hood underneath it and what looked like fingerless gloves. Metal foot guards and boots completed their ensemble, but what stood out the most was the white masks they were all wearing, which resembled the bone-plating that the Grimm had across their faces. Even more eyecatching was the insignia across the backs of their jackets - a blood-red wolf head, eye narrowed and teeth bared, with three slash marks.

The insignia of the White Fang.

Looking over this group was a massive male faunus, one adorned in a similar garb to the other White Fang members, but he had metal forearm guards, tattoos down his left arm, and a distinctive mask that covered the entirety of his face. At his side was a massive chainsaw, freshly refueled and its chain sharpened. His Scroll was set into its phone mode as he oversaw the training exercises of a few recruits.

"Will that thieving human be there?" His conversation partner, male if the voice was anything to go by, fired back through the Scroll.

"Willing to bet he will be, but if some random Hunter could waylay his efforts several times over, then we've nothing to fear."

"Other than that Hunter potentially calling in backup, or turning their attention towards us. Get what you can and vacate the area... we don't need any other unnecessary problems."

"Very well. Callan out." The line went dead, and Callan folded his Scroll back up.

**Monday, June 27 **

**Vale Streets, 7:49 P.M.**

Exiting a local scrap electronics store with a few purchases, Raoul flipped his personal Scroll open, bringing up his notes for the proposed beacon to send out the message. Of the parts necessary for this, they had acquired some old radio pieces.

'_Think we have enough parts. We ought to be able to begin in earnest with these._'

'_A bit of study, and I should be able to begin replication of these parts, albeit with the modifications we need to ensure this works. That said..._'

'_What's on your mind?_'

'_This would presume our bunch managed to get off that planet, wherever it is in the cosmos..._'

'_Considering they have a Yoshitsuna-model ship, one that we spent a good amount of time getting fixed up, I know they made it off that planet. Mita may be crazy, but she's resourceful- don't forget, she had been making use of that vessel long before I arrived and you were brought back to consciousness._'

'_Fair point. Guess my memory banks need tuning up..._' Her train of thought was momentarily derailed by an overhead shadow... several, in fact, headed for the Industrial District at a fair pace. '_Uhh... do Bullheads normally have guns?_'

'_Not that I've seen... you think something is up?_'

'_Well, if by up, you mean-_' The faint sound of something making a loud bang, followed by smoke rising in the distance cut her off. '_Yes. Something is indeed happening._'

That was impetus enough to go investigate. He ducked into a small alley to store his purchases into a wing before taking off down another back alley towards the action. As he drew closer to the Industrial District, he could indeed see several Bullheads up ahead by the docks, only for two of them to suddenly fall out of the sky after being severed in half by... was that an emerald-colored laser beam!?

'_The hell was that?_'

One of them was attempting to make off with some cargo, but it looked as though it was having trouble taking off... something had to be pulling it down - scratch that, someone pulled it down, forcing it to crash into the pavement. It looked like some redheaded girl in a gunmetal grey dress... yet something about her felt off. She was surrounded by several blades that looked to dance around her, several of those aforementioned blades dislodging themselves from the Bullhead and now being put towards smacking around several asked characters that tried attacking her.

'_...hmm.. I wonder..._'

Over on another Bullhead, that Torchwick character was busy boarding it as several Axe Gang members were also following close behind. However, it seems that there were other people here, some of whom were engaging the Axe Gang members and were also wearing those masks. Torchwick turned to shoot at a few of them, the bottom of his cane flipping upwards to reveal a sight as some kind of firework-esque projectile launched out at the masked beings.

It was as one of them put his back towards Raoul's direction as they engaged another Axe Gang member that it clicked.

'_What are the White Fang doing here?_'

Raoul cast a quick eye over the situation, and he swore he could see two other individuals among the mess of people. These two individuals were busy fending off several other Fang members - one was a dark-haired female dressed in a black and white ensemble with a black ribbon tied into a bow upon her head, whilst the other was a blonde male in blue jeans and an open white shirt. He appeared to have a tail that matched his hair color, indicating he was a Faunus. The one with the bow seemed to be dual-wielding some swords, though one looked much thicker than the other, whilst the blonde made use of a staff to knock more of the Fang members unconscious.

'_Still think they'd benefit from practical armor on this world._' Even with the fact that the two of them were fighting smart, keeping their backs to each other to minimze the risk of getting sneak-attacked, they were fairly outnumbered, though if the number of unconscious Fang members were an indication, it seemed they had the situation well in-hand, especially if the redhead with the blades was lending them assistance. Come to think of it, several of the Axe Gang were already taken out...

'_There some kind of gang war going on?_'

'_Hey, there's one of those Bullheads over to the left._' One of the Bullheads had yet to take off from the ground, its Fang-affiliated pilots keeping the side doors open for the others as the scuffle continued on. From how they were shifting around, it was a fair bet to say they were getting in touch with whomever else they were working alongside. '_Think we should take it out?_'

Raoul considered this for a moment, the gears in his head quickly turning. Then the proverbial lightbulb clicked on.

'_I got one better._' Knowing the Vale Police would be on their way, he darted over to the open craft, sticking to hiding among the other shipping containers to minimize detection by those still fighting. The interior was devoid of other people, leaving Raoul free and clear to head to the cockpit. This one was likely going to be a getaway vehicle.

Strolling into the pilot's chamber, Raoul grabbed the White Fang grunts at the ship's controls by the back of their necks, and delivered a knockout via forcefully making their heads collide with one another's. Tossing them out of the aerial craft, he quickly sat in the pilot's seat, looking over the controls and other instruments. The Bullhead's radio looked to be off, likely to maintain silence for this operation.

'_Tell me, how is this a better idea?_'

'_Said it before, didn't I? The less they have to work with, the better. Think we can tap the radio for any other broadcasts or messages, figure where these guys are operating from?_'

'_Should be able to. Gimme a minute to figure something out._' As the radio was flipped on, his companion went right to work attempting to use the filched Scroll to tap the radio for any useful information. Raoul, in the meantime, was looking over the instruments and trying to figure out the general idea of how to fly one of these things. To aid matters, he popped his Scroll open to find any online details about Bullhead operation.

The radio came to life, picking up several different broadcasts. Raoul's friend sifted through each one, trying to find something of use.

One intercepted message caught wind of the Vale Police Department being alerted to the goings-on at the Docks, and multiple units were headed that way right now. It wouldn't be long before they got here, and found the scene of the whole deal.

'_Think it's time for us to go._' With that, Raoul grasped the control stick for the craft, and carefully began to ease the craft upwards, taking quick glances at his Scroll to ensure he was doing this correctly. The few Fang members still conscious would see one of their crafts lifting off to leave them behind! Several actually began firing their guns at the Bullhead, their reasoning being that if this was the work of any traitors, their damaged craft would slow them down enough for local law enforcement to catch up with them.

'_OK, if that's how they're gonna play..._' Without warning, the gun placed at the Bullhead's nose wound up, and within seconds began to fire at the grunts! Now fearing for their lives, the grunts scattered, deciding it was time to get the hell out of there. Torchwick had gotten his Bullhead started up and was already fleeing the area.

With that, it was time to depart the area. Carefully, Raoul turned the Bullhead southward, and within seconds it took off. Not a moment later the Vale Police flooded into the scene, finding the remains of the Axe Gang and the White Fang... alongside several Beacon students that had gotten caught up in the crossfire.

The ramifications of this encounter would be felt for months to come...

**South Residential District Border, 8:09 P.M.**

The stolen Bullhead roughly touched down near the old entrance towards Mountain Glenn, and Raoul quickly climbed out. With a fair number of trees in the area, it would suffice as cover enough for the vessel. If need be, he could grab some more branches to serve as cover.

"Well, that does it."

"OK, so you stole one of these Bullheads. What now?"

"Simple enough. We get some stuff moved into here, and we've got ourselves a mobile base. The house is nice and all, but sooner or later someone's gonna get suspicious."

"No reason to completely ditch it, though. It is our main source of clean water."

"True." He inspected the vehicle from the outside, checking the gun and making certain that the Fang firing at him didn't leave any damage. There were a few small dents in the side, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.

"This is going to require some upkeep to ensure it won't break down on us."

"Ahead of you on that one." He popped his personal Scroll back open, and went right to work looking up any other details he could find on Bullheads - make, model numbers, the whole works. About seven minutes of searching revealed that this model was recently unveiled in Atlas... so if the Fang was able to get ahold of one, then someone had to have been either supplying them, or they managed to snag it beneath Atlas's noses.

"Hm... now there's a thought. Perhaps we can rewire the radio systems into a scanner, pick up on transmissions here and there."

"It'd be worth a try. We're going to need to figure these things out first, though."

"No time like the present."

**White Fang Meeting Area, Unknown Time**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

The Lieutenant grit his teeth as the report came in.

It wasn't even Hunters or Police that had stymied the heist - it was mere schoolchildren! And according to the reports, two of them were Faunus, to boot! Only two Bullheads had managed to escape with anything of value. According to what testimony he had been able to extract from some of the other members that had managed to escape police apprehension, one of their Bullheads had lifted off before collecting anyone, and opened fire on them. That was the last thing they needed - more dissenters in the ranks.

But the silver lining was yet to be addressed - Blake Belladonna had been found, being one of the two Faunus that had participated in giving Torchwick such a hard time. Adam would be quite pleased to hear of this... her desertation all those months ago had him feeling personally betrayed.

He picked up his Scroll, and flipped to a particular number. "Brother Taurus, I may have found something interesting."

"Then make it quick, Lieutenant Callan." From the tone of Adam's voice, he wasn't in much of a mood for a long conversation.

"Belladonna has been located. It would appear she's trying to masquerade as a Beacon student."

There was silence for a minute or two as Adam was likely processing this information.

"Continue observing when possible. I'll be bringing more members to replace those we've lost."

"That said, some of our members saw one of our Bullheads take off to the south. It had fired upon them before departing. The pilots of that craft had also been knocked out prior..."

"...another traitor? That's the last thing we need-" The sound of something else trying to interrupt the call sounded. "...and now Khan wants to know what's taking so long. Taurus out." Ending the call, Callan pocketed his Scroll before heaving a small sigh.

**Torchwick's Base, 9:55 P.M.**

With the Police finally off his tail, Torchwick stepped into the other warehouse that he had been using as a personal HQ. With only a small toolbox-sized case of Dust to show for his efforts at the docks, he set it down onto the table, letting loose a frustrated sigh as he did so.

Of course it had to be some nosy brats up past their bedtime that cut the operation short. And wouldn't you know it, that brat in red had to be there as well - did she lead those kids to him or something? But the real topping on this sundae was the presence of the Fang. They must've had their eyes on the Schnee shipment as well...

"How very disappointing, Roman..." And there was the woman of the hour. He turned to meet her, and joy of joys, her two sycophants were here as well.

"Well, you're all back quicker than expected."

"Speaking of expectations..."

"Hey, how was I to know the White Fang mutts would try to butt into the operation?"

"Never mind them for now, Roman. There's something more important we need to discuss."

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 11:08 A.M.**

"Stealing Bullheads like that..." Ironwood knew the White Fang were resourceful, but to be able to procure so many in a short time... might there have been gaps in Atlas security? He made a personal reminder to run a personal check when he returned. "You still have the one you obtained?"

"It's down at our humble abode, but yes." Nelius confirmed. "The figuring was to deprive them of a vital resource, and if the chance arose, maybe try and tap into whatever means of communication they were using to coordinate. I mean, if you want it back to check it out, I can bring it up this way."

"I'll hold you to that statement as well."

"Continuing on..." Ozpin interjected. "What came next?"

"Mostly it had been checks around the city to see if there were more clues as to their location, basically if there was anything the police might've overlooked. That said..."

"We did stumble across what felt like an attempted murder by Cinder's two lackeys." Raoul's companion spoke up, taking over for this one.

**Three Weeks Post-Docks Incident**

**Thursday, July 21, 8:32 A.M.**

Raoul rolled out of his hammock, flipping the TV on as he got his gear ready for another excursion.

Since the big crossfire roundup at the docks all that time ago, the crime rate regarding Dust Thefts seemed to be leveling off at a slow but steady rate. In comparison to before, when multiple shops would be hit up in one night, now it seemed to be a sporadic case here and there. Dust prices were beginning to level off as well.

In that time, Raoul had kept up his usual tasks - kill some Grimm, get paid for doing so, then look up various topics, ranging from learning more about Vale to researching the parts he wanted to have made in order to transmit that message out into space.

At the same time, he was also doing the occasional night run whenever he didn't have any extermination missions to do. However, it seemed that Torchwick was getting smarter about the operations, likely going in himself instead of relying on the Axe Gang to take the fall. He had probably figured that since someone had managed to tail the Gang, they were best left suited to other unrelated tasks.

The warehouses within Vale were being slowly checked over, both by the Police and Raoul himself. While several caches of supplies were found, there were few to no clues regarding where those that had stashed the goods had hidden themselves at. To that end, his companion had taken to using the scanned biodata to try and find a trail of where Torchwick had decided to run off to, but just as a trail would reveal itself, it would halt just as suddenly. About the only conclusion to that was that Torchwick had to have a base of operations well outside of Vale, just close enough that he could escape to another kingdom via Bullhead or some other kind of aerial craft if the heat got to be too much.

On the subject of Bullheads, there was the one they acquired during the roundup to take into consideration. With so little to move around he figured that he could remain at the base until such a time was necessary for him to get things into the craft. His Scroll proved invaluable in learning more about the vessel, but most of the pages that he went to look up suggested finding the production serial of the craft before attempting repairs or alterations.

Such advice made sense. This Bullhead was much different compared to the earlier models he'd seen before, the cockpit being able to seat two at once, and having a few extra systems to pivot the tri-barrel gatling gun situated beneath its nose. Overall, it was in great condition, but he felt it better to have the know-how before something disastrous happened. If most of the information wasn't yet accessible on the CCT, then maybe either the Library or one of the local bookstores might have it.

Looked like it was time to take a stroll into the city. Aside from finding materials to keep it fixed up, why not also take a little time to ensure it would have a steady supply of Dust for both power and ammo? Anyway, the first stop would be the book store. Word had been going around of a fairly nice place within the Commercial District. If nothing was found there, then the Library would be the next stop.

As he was on his way towards the store, however, he caught wind of some kind of argument that was only barely below a full-on shouting match. A blonde-haired young woman in a brown jacket and blue jeans was giving a white-eared rabbit Faunus in pink and white some level of vitrol, and the Faunus in question was giving as good as she got.

From what details he could make of the argument, it seemed the blonde was being accused of horrendous cooking ability, and in turn the Faunus was being accused of having warped taste buds. Either way, it wasn't his business, so off he went.

'_There's the place. Let's see what it has to offer._'

**Tukson's Book Trade, 10:51 A.M.**

"I'm sure you have some idea of who we are."As Emerald spoke to the store owner, her accomplice, Mercury, dimmed the sets of shades in the store, blocking outside view.

"Bit hard not to." Tukson, the bookstore owner whom looked to be around his mid-thirties, kept a neutral expression, even as he could feel the bloodlust in the room beginning to rise. It took a fair bit of willpower to keep himself composed.

"You know why we're here?"

"I have a guess why..." Mercury then approached, standing next to Emerald after the last set of shades were dimmed. Subtly, the store owner could see the grey-haired youth shift his feet, ready to spring forward at a moment's notice. It was a blink and you'd miss it kind of detail, but Tukson could tell that whatever stance Mercury's feet had gone to, it put far too much weight on the toes.

"So... any plans to fight back?" The question was asked in the sort of tone that hoped for an affirmative response. Emerald was looking to goad him into attacking, no doubt so they could retaliate freely.

Before Tukson could give his answer, the front door clicked open, light spilling into the store. Everyone froze upon this happening, immediately turning their attention towards whomever had just walked in.

"Hello." Walking in was a seven-foot tall man with wild brown hair, easily all muscle beneath that coat. One lone eye peeked out from beneath that hair, the other covered via eyepatch. Emerald felt her blood run cold at this sudden intrusion. Immediately her gaze went right to Mercury, whom shared a look of confusion mixed with frustration. They did their best to hide the looks, lest this unidentified element catch onto their plans.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade." Just like that, the store owner dropped right into his usual persona, trying to ignore the shift in tone. "How might I be able to help you?"

"Some light in the store would help brighten the mood." As he walked up to the counter, out of the corner of his eye he could see the two other people trying to put on a neutral expression. "But, to business. I'm looking for mechanical manuals, mostly stuff related to Bullheads and repair. Friend of mine is looking to get an old scrapper fixed up on the cheap, maybe repurpose or scrap it entirely if it proves too much dead weight."

"Huh, normally I don't get too many people asking for those. Lemme check in the back." With that, Tukson went into the back of the store to check. At the same time, however...

Emerald was mortified. They were so close to taking Tukson down, and some random person off the streets just had to walk in.

"Why didn't you lock the door?!" She hissed to Mercury under her breath.

"This was supposed to be a quick side trip. By the time anyone would've caught on, we'd have been long gone." He answered back in an equally low tone, and said answer immediately got her thinking again.

She quickly gauged the new customer... she could risk using her Semblance to make him think that Tukson hadn't anything available, and goad him into leaving... no, that was a dumb idea. He could easily end up returning for something else and coming across Tukson's corpse once they were done.. that would lead to him either putting two and two in combination, or force the two of them to hide the body elsewhere. Mercury and she could decide to kill him here and now - that was an even dumber idea. The sounds of the fighting would undoubtedly get Tukson to either act or get the Police on the case even more.

About three minutes had passed, and Emerald quickly reached a verdict. This situation had gotten far too risky to even consider continuing.

"We need to go." Her compatriot looked at her as if she had grown two more heads out the sides of her neck.

"Why? We can wait-"

"Go. Now." Emerald began ushering him out. Reluctantly, the gray-haired teen was lead out by his green-haired cohort.

Raoul waited in front of the desk for Tukson to return, his left hand comfortably resting at his side.

'_Hey, those two that just left-_'

'_I know. The bloodlust in the air was thick enough to be cut with my axe._'

'_If those two are here, then the crimson bitch has to be within the area._'

'_Likely meeting with Torchwick and what other help he has. They have to be up to something with all that Dust._'

Tukson eventually returned with several manuals after another three minutes. "Here's what I got currently. Any of these work for you?" He set them down on the desk, and Raoul got right to work flipping through them, looking for any matching details with what he had recorded down in his Scroll.

As Raoul looked the manuals over, Tukson took notice that Emerald and Mercury had left, and he silently let loose a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"I believe these three here should do the trick. How much for 'em?" Tukson mentally added up the price in his head.

"For these ones... about 200 Lien will do it."

"Done deal." Raoul slid the money over, Tukson accepting it.

"Thanks. Anything else you might be interested in?"

"Got anything related to electronic repair and assembly?"

It would be another six minutes before Tukson returned with a few manuals. Looking them over, there was one on fixing Scrolls, ranging from physical component replacement to coding.

Another 25 Lien and the manual was in his possession.

"Have a good day." With that, Raoul left the store, and as he stepped outside, he began to look around for the other two. '_Nowhere in sight. Betting they're hanging around waiting for me to go..._'

Tukson waited for Raoul to leave his sight, then immediately locked the door. His heart was racing several miles a minute. He had to get this information out there before those two came back. He headed into the back room, and dug out a small box, finding his old Scroll. His old contacts were in there. He then spared another minute to acquire some footage from a security camera he had installed back when a few punks had tried stealing some comics a few years ago.

He grabbed his belongings and was out the back passage in under two minutes. Luckily he had a friend nearby.

**The Base, 12:43 P.M.**

Slipping into the house, Raoul headed downstairs to place his purchases down.

"You have it recorded?"

"Committed to a file, yes." The eye glowed once more, and an audio clip played of Emerald and Mercury's hushed discussion between them. "Man, they're giving us more evidence against them."

"Speaking of, if the crimson bitch is in the area, then whatever they're planning must be moving into a new stage. We'll have to try and find them before they decide to vacate Vale."

"Speaking of finding them, I remembered what you said about trying to sense out the crimson bitch, and I put my sensor arrays to use during the recording."

"Verdict?"

"I got their biodata recorded. If they end up moving around again, we should be able to track them down if we're close enough."

"Excellent."

With that, he opened the Scroll manual and began to browse through it, the two of them learning more intricate details about their device.

"Oh, no wonder I had trouble learning the code originally." His companion found herself quite enraptured by this text. "Whomever came up with this programming seemed to have made it a touch obtuse, likely on purpose."

"Either way, with this backing us up, your progress on that locator app should increase several fold."

"Yeah, this'll work. Time to get to it!"

As his companion worked on her app, Raoul flipped open the first of the manuals on Bullhead repairs and began comparing notes.

**Roman's Loading Spot, 9:55 P.M.**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

Emerald and Mercury slowly entered the hideout. It was far too quiet, even for this general location within Vale. A few of the Axe Gang were patrolling about, keeping tabs on the area. Though where was-

"And look here, she sent the kids again, well past their curfew!" Torchwick appeared out of seemingly nowhere, circling them to put his arm around each of their necks and draw them closer. "This really is turning out like the divorce!" The two of them quickly threw his arms off of them.

"Ugh... Spare us the thought of you procreating." Emerald really didn't want that particular image in her head right now.

"That was a joke... and this-" Torchwick held up his free left hand, revealing a slip of paper as he walked back over to one of the tables, "-should tell me why you two have been so late getting back."

With a small gasp of alarm, Emerald quickly checked her back pockets. How did he-

"You forget, you're talking to a professional. Maybe if you pay attention, you'll learn something." He opened the paper up, and read the address printed on it. Almost immediately his eyes narrowed. "Why were you at this address?" It was asked in a tone that demanded nothing short of an honest answer. After a minute of silence... "Well, we're not getting any younger. What were you two doing there?"

"Oh, nothing major, just keeping tabs on-" That was when Mercury gave the wrong answer, something Torchwick made plenty clear with his next statement.

"Tabs? You call '_walking into the establishment_' keeping tabs on him?"

"What-"

To that, Torchwick flipped out his own Scroll, showing a report of Tukson's Book Trade taking a temporary closing. "The point of '_keeping tabs_' on someone is to not give them the impression you're watching them."

"Like you hadn't already?"

"That was under control." Roman snapped back, but as Mercury tried to argue back, the career thief continued. "So long as he was isolated, he was quiet, he wouldn't suspect a thing, but more importantly, he wouldn't _say_ anything. And now that he has the idea that people want him dead-"

"Roman?" Oh great, it was Cinder again. She came into view from one of the upper catwalks. "Is there an issue?" Normally Roman wouldn't try to draw her ire, but his own was simply greater at this point in time, consequences be damned.

"You bet there's an issue. Your two asskissers decided to go off and try to kill one of my marks."

"I see no issue here..." Slowly she approached, that distinct chime of glass accentuating her steps as her gaze went right to Emerald and Mercury. "Though I distinctly remember telling you two to keep your hands clean while we were in Vale."

"Oh, there's an issue here all right, when these two failed to do the job." That caught Cinder's attention, the usual smirk on her face fading fast. "And now that he's got a hint that his life's on the line it's more than likely he's decided to find a new hiding spot, which means tracking him down again will be a whole other circus act altogether." As Cinder processed this, he continued on, "...not to mention potentially pointing the Fang _in our direction_."

Cinder's burning gaze turned to her two disciples. Emerald tried to defuse this situation.

"W-we can still-"

"No." Cinder's tone of voice had dropped harshly. "You two will remain here. There are still enough Fang members that are more than willing to hear him out, turncoat that he might be. I need to make certain your little stunt doesn't give us a new set of enemies." Cinder shut her down promptly.

"B-but we thought-"

"Do not think. _Obey_." With that, she turned and left, each step echoing in their ears and reminding them of their failure.

While Mercury was scheming to find that brunette bastard and take him out in retribution for messing up their plan, Emerald had little else on her mind other than the sinking, sour realization of how badly they had messed up.

First there was losing the Fall Maiden, now this... ever since that thing imitating a Grimm showed up and handed them all their collective rears, things had been going downhill.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room. 11:28 A.M.**

"So what do you imagine happened to Tukson?" Ozpin put the question out in the open.

"If I had to guess, he's well outside of the Kingdom by now. Someone getting ready to kill you in your own store would be cause for alarm." Nelius replied.

"A shame. One of my students spoke highly of the place and its owner."

"All the more reason to have them brought in." Ironwood affirmed. "If they're willing to be that brazen it'd only be a matter of time before a greater incident would happen."

"Truthfully, I get the feeling that they're after something far greater than just crippling Vale's economy." About ten seconds passed before someone spoke up.

"What do you propose, then?" Ozpin responded, breaking the silence.

"We'd need to figure out how sunken in their claws are, metaphorically speaking of course. If they've been operating here in Vale for a while, I'd easily imagine they have other targets they'd want brought down."

"...Beacon..." Ozpin came to the realization. '_Seems my age really is catching up with me. The signs were there..._'

"It'd make sense." Ironwood spoke up. "Not only one of the most prestigious Hunter Academies, but also the location of Vale's CCT tower. And with what you've told us of their operations.."

"People are going to be on edge due to Dust being in such short supply, which'd make Vale a giant dinner bell to the Grimm when that tension hits critical mass. And considering that Festival is to be held here in a few months..."

Glynda was unusually silent as she processed this information. Those three... she had passed by them in Beacon a number of times, even teaching them during some of her classes. She then remembered - they had stated that their fourth team-member was going to be a bit late in arriving, having need of settling a small family issue before attending the Vytal Festival. If those three were the ones behind the recent incident, then what could their fourth member be doing right now?

Chapter 8- Complete


	9. Chapter 9

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'  
**Scene Change**

Chapter 9: Misfortune

Raoul had his Scroll open as he flipped over to check some compiled notes regarding their activities whilst on Remnant.

"That crimson chick has Torchwick and the Axe Gang on her payroll. They've been stealing a shitton of Dust and weaponry, which we've been sending back to their original owners."

"Not only were prices going sky-high, people are honestly worried about all of this activity." His companion brought notice to several articles they had bookmarked in the interim. While some entries were proving relieved that someone was taking action against the crime spree, others were quick to disparage the fact that Torchwick remained free to roam about Vale, with those same people showing a complete lack of faith in the local law enforcement.

"Undoubtedly they're tense about all of this. Add in the White Fang making their rounds-" He flipped the Scroll's page over to an opinion piece expressing concerns about the docks incident,"-and that tension's gonna be a five-star alarm for the Grimm when it hits critical mass."

"...you think maybe that's her ultimate goal? Steal the good stuff and let the kingdom get overrun?"

"A smash and grab mixed with a slash and burn? Wouldn't surprise me too much if that was the case, given these recent activities." He flipped over to another page. "Though now I wonder where they're operating out from, if that is the ultimate goal. We've checked around the near entirety of the Industrial and Residential Districts, and so far no real clues."

"If they're able to get about within Vale so easily, I'd imagine they either have multiple hangouts like the hideaways where Torchwick's supplies were stashed, or they're keeping to a place where nobody'd look twice. We might need to get a foothold in the Upper-Class District if we want to expand our search area." At the same time, she was tying several other notes together. "It might also be possible they've got an external base set up somewhere, probably using another Bullhead to get in and out of places quickly."

'Well, no use just sitting around here." Raoul closed his Scroll and donned his usual gear. "Let's do some poking around. If we're lucky, we might be able to catch them mid-move. How's your sensor array?"

"All systems green. Ready when you are."

**Vale Streets**

**Thursday, August 11, 10:21 A.M.**

'_Hey, what's that?_' Several people were gathered around what looked like a stage. Approaching, Raoul could see several grey robots standing in front of what looked like transport modules. A holographic display of a man in a white suit was playing as he talked about the robots, and how Atlas technology was constantly innovating new fields in its research.

'_Well, this confirms that this world does have decent robotics._'

Suddenly, as the holographic display touted a new breed of robot, the modules opened up, revealing sleeker, much cleaner looking robots in comparison to the dark grey machines. These newer machines then kicked the older robots down... and were they doing bodybuilding poses? Either way, the crowd of people seemed to enjoy the display, if the applause and a few cheers were any indicator.

'_Huh, using robots to keep people off the battlefield... can't deny, this guy does have a good ethic about it._'

'_Perhaps, but machines are still machines. Anything without a true will of its own could easily be turned against someone._'

The hologram of the man disappeared, only to be replaced by what looked to be an immense bipedal mechanical suit, touted as an Atlesian Paladin. From its design, this was meant to be piloted by a single person. If what the holographic recording said was true, then these would be soon put into use within the upcoming year.

'_Looks a bit too unwieldly, if I may be honest._'

'_Hmmm... we'll need to commit that thing to memory._'

'_Huh? Why?_'

'_Remember the weapons we found in a prior operation, not to mention the Bullhead that the Fang somehow nabbed? Something like that would be far too tempting to pass up._'

'_True, but how would they even manage to steal one of those?_'

'_I'd imagine the same way they took everything else... wait for an opportune moment, then strike._'

Aside from the tech show, there wasn't much to be seen here, so off they went to scour the city some more. Well, two security personnel took off in a direction, likely going after a person of interest, but that wasn't his business at the moment.

His companion had her scanners going on full tilt, trying to find traces of the two that had shown up at the book store. If those two could be found, then it'd be a quick lead to wherever the crimson woman was hiding out at.

**White Fang Rally, Industrial District, 7:56 P.M.**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

Callan looked out over the crowd, and found himself grimacing ever so slightly beneath his mask.

Turnout for the rally had been much lower than expected. While the uniformed Fang members were in high attendance, as per the usual for security reasons, the number of potential new recruits was depressingly low. For a second he'd have sworn he saw someone familiar in the crowd of new recruits, but ultimately brushed it off as a trick of the mind.

He scowled. Vale had more than enough Faunus here to easily help bolster the ranks of the Fang... so where were they? One of the first thoughts to cross his mind was that Torchwick had some hand in interfering, but according to a few informants, his appearances throughout Vale were becoming rarer and rarer, and that got him to wonder if maybe the local law enforcement had finally wisened up and began tracking him down in earnest.

Vale, progressive though it may be, wasn't known as the best place for having high tolerance of Faunus, so the idea of most being comfortable in the kingdom was already in question. Word had been spread of the rally, so that wasn't an issue either...

The small crowd of Faunus that had gathered to hear about the rally were beginning to get a little restless. He'd give it another minute for any last-second walk-ins, then he'd get this kicked off.

The minute passed without incident, and so he cleared his throat.

"Before we begin, I'd like to extend a personal thanks to those that chose to come here. For those currently not in the know..."

As Callan gave a small speech about what the White Fang represented, and how they would change the Kingdoms' way of thinking concerning all Faunus-kind, one of the "recruits" in the small crowd was here for something else... ever since the incident at the docks, the gravitas of what the Fang had become was slowly beginning to sink in. At first they thought it restricted to one of their fellow members, but this... the organization they once called home was turning into something even worse.

They'd heard Callan's spiel a long time before, having once been up there alongside a few other Fang members... a bit of anxiety was beginning to set in as Callan went on. If the Fang were finding a place within Vale to operate from, then it had to be close enough that the local law enforcement was blind to it.

"Some of our people have already moved towards the south-east, but for those that would prefer to keep within the city, we'll be counting on you to keep open ears and eyes-"

This was it! That was the information they needed. The south-east... if memory served, that was the old Mountain Glenn area, now little more than a deserted ruin. As this information was processing, the clues began to sink in as to why this location was chosen.

Unbeknownst to either Callan or the two masked infiltrators, one of the Fang members silently slipped out.

A small distance away from the warehouse where the rally was taking place, one Faunus adorned in the Fang's garb removed her mask as she reopened her Scroll, sending a quick message with video to another ally of hers. She proved gray-eyed with blonde hair, and stood about 5'5". Small cat-like ears sat atop her head, mottled with black spots.

'_You owe me big for this one._' She was quick to ditch the White Fang uniform and disappear from view as the sound of the departing Faunus grew louder, many of them discussing the recent event. '_Let's hope this works..._'

The two infiltrators silently made their way out, but once they had managed to seperate from the crowd they discarded the masks and high-tailed it back to Beacon Academy, Scrolls at the ready.

**The Base, 9:12 P.M.**

Raoul was outside on this nice, warm night. Thanks to the manuals he had picked up from Tukson, he had been learning much more about the stolen Bullhead, getting a solid knowledge base of what compartments would need to be checked over to ensure the aerial craft would properly function. There was also taking it for a few nightly test flights, to ensure he was able to pilot it effectively.

In fact, the Bullhead was currently hovering over the Mountain Glenn area, which served as an out of the way practice ground for his piloting skills. The desolate former expansion was all he could see out the cockpit window, a stray Grimm prowling about here or there.

His companion had been making use of the filched Scroll to tap into whatever broadcasts she could intercept. So far, nothing had come up concerning either Torchwick's movements, or the Fang for that matter.

'_Hmm... I begin to think we might be out of range to intercept any messages._'

'_I doubt range would be much of an issue. They may be flying under radio silence right now._'

'_Fair point._'

With little better to do with his time, Raoul locked the Bullhead's controls and kept it in its hovering mode as he flipped down the right side-hatch and leaned out.

'_Dare I ask what you're doing?_'

'_Target practice._' His gun set to semi-automatic fire, he lined up some shots and let them loose. The Grimm on the ground, mostly Beowolves and Creeps, would've heard a faint sound before several of them had their heads shredded apart by the bullets. Try as they might to look around, they weren't able to get enough of a bead on whomever was attacking to retaliate.

About ten minutes of Grimm-sniping later, Raoul figured it was time to head back. Dropping back into the pilot's seat, he unlocked the Bullhead's controls, and began to head back to the base... little had he realized what was transpiring beneath his nose.

A few members of the Fang began filing into the area, finding the dissolving remains of several Grimm, but ultimately paid it no mind as they got to finding old stations that lead into the lower levels.

**Saturday, September 10 **

**Commercial District, 10:33 A.M.**

Word was going around the Commercial District that Beacon was hosting a dance party later tonight, and quite a few people seemed interested, if the scattered bits of animate chatter were any indication. Raoul didn't bother acknowledging such, continuing to look through a few scrap shops near the Industrial District for the parts he needed to understand so his companion could create her own.

The transmitter was on the cusp of completion. Feeling emboldened by this, the two had decided to check through the shops to acquire parts so they could jury-rig their own Item Diver based on Atreya's design.

'_All this party talk reminds me...I've never been to one before._'

'_Truthfully, you're not missing much. Most humans and demons I've met use it as an excuse to perform idiotic actions... and they're too loud for my personal taste._'

'_A regular workaholic, aren't you?_' He bit back a derisive snort.

'_That's a bold-faced lie. If I'm going to go out and enjoy myself, watching people act stupid while 150+ decibel noise is blasting in my ears is easily at the bottom of that list. I'd much rather go exploring new places._'

'_Then why don't we go do that once this whole thing is wrapped up?_'

'_Well, aside from finding the crimson bitch and taking her forces down, there's also us finding a spot to launch the transmitter, and so far we've been largely around Vale. I'm curious as to what the other kingdoms are like from a first-person perspective._'

'_Sounds good to me._' Finding a few items of use, Raoul paid for the scrap parts and departed from the shop. He flipped his Scroll open, to see if any new requests had come in further south.

The requests all looked to be full up. Ah well, there's always next time. Guess it was time to head back and study these parts and begin to formulate their own. He closed his Scroll, stashing it back in his pocket.

They'd do another check around for any lingering stashes that either Torchwick or the Fang had later tonight.

**Torchwick's new base, unknown time**

**A Consequence of Actions Taken**

Roman looked over the plan that Cinder had come up with.

Since the Fang couldn't be drafted to assist in her plan, and had already attacked him once before, the new idea was as such: Roman would go out for one last hit on some Dust shops, where Cinder and her accomplices would "stumble across" him, and after some amount of "fighting", he'd be captured and turned over to the Atlas Special Forces.

General Ironwood was known all too well for his displays of military might, if the multiple Atleasian craft hovering outside of Beacon were any indicator. When he asked why he wasn't being turned over to the Vale Police, Cinder simply pressed a Scroll into his hands, which he took a look at with an expression of curiosity.

This Scroll had the image of a Black Queen Chess piece overtop a red background, and she showed her own Scroll having the same display. All Neo would need to do is bust him out, and all he had to do was upload that into the ship's computer systems. Then the fireworks would really begin.

He took a long drag from one of his cigars. This was getting a little too risky for his liking - ever since the initial hits to the operation months back, supplies had been dwindling further and further, forcing him to make more outings into Vale and risk getting caught by whomever or whatever had been hot on his heels. While the idea of turning Ironwood's machinery and comptuers against him was a fun idea, it made him wonder what the hell Cinder was thinking, trying to keep this going. What sort of grudge did she have against the kingdom if she was willing to go this far?

He felt someone poke him in the side... there was only one person who'd do that.

"Was wondering when you'd get back, Neo." He turned to regard this presence.

Compared to Roman, this person, a female, was rather small, easily a bit under five feet tall. Her hair was parted into two colors, brown on her left and pink on her right. Her eyes were of similar colors, but in opposite position. She was clad in a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, black gloves, and black and white high-heeled boots. Beneath her jacket was a brown corset, and around her neck was plenty of haphazardly worn necklackes.

Neo simply stared at Roman. As she blinked, her eyes seemed to change color, her brown eye turning white.

"Tell me about it... while Cinder takes her kids off to enjoy fun and merriment at a school dance, we're stuck out here getting ready to put on a giant stage play with all of Vale as our audience."

Another blink, Neo's eyes both going pink.

"I know, I know, I just can't help but feel that maybe this isn't as cracked up as Cinder said it'd be."

Neo tilted her head, her right eye going brown this time as she put on a questioning look.

"The busts, Junior's boys getting beat by the Fang, even our operations getting some scrutiny... we need an exit strategy in case this doesn't work out."

Both of her eyes went brown at this as an eyebrow raised.

"Believe me, I'm more than aware, especially with how deep we are in this. Still, if Cinder's plans are going to go down in flames, she's going alone on that one."

He went back to looking over the Scroll Cinder had provided him with, eventually handing it over to Neo for safekeeping whilst he was playing prisoner.

This whole thing had best be damn well worth it.

**Beacon Academy**

**Sunday, September 11, 12:24 A.M.**

Cinder Fall entered the dorm room alongside her two disciples, Mercury making a beeline for the bathroom ahead of a peeved Emerald. It had been child's play to sneak into the CCT tower and implant her end of the virus that one of her colleagues had designed... probably would've been easier if that brat with the oversized scythe hadn't seen fit to try and intervene. Come to think of it, if what she remembered from before was accurate, that same child had been at two of Roman's heists... how did someone so young manage to have such an uncanny sense of knowing when to show up?

Thankfully all the Dust she had Roman steal went a long way in keeping her identity a secret, so there was no risk of that girl or Beacon security being able to figure it out. It was going to take her a long while to weave more into her clothing if she needed another disguise; a task that, despite her skills, she wasn't looking forward to. A bit of a waste of resources as well, but one that was necessary to see this through.

Now came waiting for the virus to begin propagating throughout the CCT, something that would be aided by countless people tapping into it. Once it had fully spread through, then the ultimate stage of this plan would begin. During that time, Roman should be finishing preparations of his end. The multiple hits and the subsequent police raids had stymied resource acquisition somewhat, not to mention that her disciples' attempt on Tukson's life was foiled, despite her clearly telling them to not dirty their hands... but, all in all, she had acquired more than enough to ensure that this surprise would go through. After all, how could they prepare for something they'd never see coming if their attention was focused elsewhere?

In all honesty, Cinder was not a patient woman, but she understood the benefits of keeping her cards close to her heart. Just a little longer, and the payoff would ensure she got her wish and carried out her task at the same time.

Still, there hadn't been any signs of the Fall Maiden being kept here, and her contacts elsewhere reported no signs of her at all. She had to be alive, as there were no stories going around of a random female suddenly flinging fire or electricity without using their Semblance. There had been a supposed sighting in Vacuo, but that was months ago - she could've easily hidden out somewhere else. No information came in from their informant in Mistral, and she'd never be welcome in Menagerie...

'_I'll have to get in touch with our Atlas contact..._' It'd be a bit of a stretch, but Ironwood would easily oversee the Fall Maiden's safety if she should find herself up that way. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Emerald watched with a heavy heart as Cinder got in touch with her elsewhere contacts. She knew this was her fault, as she had thought that taking Tukson out when Torchwick had failed to do the job would earn Cinder's praise.

'_Instead that brunette man shows up and nearly catches us and now all this has happened..._' She knew something had to be done to regain Cinder's trust. Mercury had been thinking of finding that witness and taking him out... perhaps in the middle of the plan the two of them could carry it out? If he were caught up in all the ruckus they could make it seem like he got jumped... yeah, that could work. Between her Semblance and Mercury's own skills, this could be pulled off with ease.

**The Base, 8:32 A.M.**

Raoul got out of his hammock, stretching to loosen up his muscles. He flipped his personal Scroll open, only to see that the network was undergoing maintenance at the moment. It'd be back on shortly.

'_Hey, the app's ready to be tested. Get the stolen Scroll and we'll begin._' Setting his Personal Scroll into standby, he headed over to where the filched Scroll was charging, and opened it up into its phone mode. '_Access the extra menu hidden in the Contacts Tab._'

He did so, finding the hacked menu allowing for easy access to the Scroll's internal programming and coding.

'_All right, which one?_'

'_Tap the one at the very bottom._' He did so, and the screen went white before a small red triangle outlined in black appeared at its center. There was a circle nearly overlapping it, just off to the left slightly. In the top right corner, there was a large black X, presumably to close this out.

'_Interesting._'

'_Took me nearly forever to get this to work how I wanted it to. This Scroll coding is something else, even with that book we picked up giving me better context._'

Raoul backed away slightly, seeing the other circle smoothly shift away, revealing it to be a light blue in color. As he then moved to his right, the light blue circle was seen moving away, confirming it to be his personal Scroll.

'_Hm, using the unique signal patterns of different Scrolls' numbers for tracking, I would guess._'

'_Something along those lines, though there's much more to this that I could do as I learn more. We can take it into the city for a larger-scale test._'

'_Sounds good._' Switching the Scroll back to its usual mode, he pocketed it alongside his official one. Though what to do today?

The Dust Thefts seemed to have leveled off altogether over the past few days. He had taken a few nightly patrols in the prior days, just in case this quiet period was merely a ruse, but it really did feel like Torchwick's spree was coming to an end... nah, it couldn't be that convenient. Guy had to be planning something else. Nobody would just pack up and leave after a spree like that, especially someone with that many cohorts at their beck and call.

Something else to consider was the White Fang. Ever since they were spotted attacking Roman and his henchmen at the docks, murmurings of them trying something else was on the minds of several people. Some sites on Vale's Network had been slowly filling up with messages concerning a potential repeat of what Atlas had to deal with two years prior, when it was hosting the 39th Vytal Festival.

Also, try as he might, he found neither hide nor hair of the red woman's two followers. After their supposed attempt on that Tukson guy's life, he had left, and those two hadn't been seen around since... he knew the police hadn't found anything worth talking about. His companion had made use of the scanned data to try and locate them, but the traces were fairly faint within the city, feeling as though they criss-crossed and doubled back upon each other before ultimately dispersing.

Either way, a trip into the city sounded good. Tukson's Book Trade was apparently still open, but if the guy himself was long gone, it was likely being handled by someone he appointed. Officially, it had been stated on a few newsfeeds that Tukson had departed to sort out a family issue.

**Tukson's Book Trade, 10:15 A.M.**

Raoul walked up to the store, seeing the sign in the door read "Open". The windows weren't tinted like before, instead letting the sunlight filter in.

Entering the store, he heard the distinct chime that signaled a customer's entry.

"Just a second..." That was a woman's voice. About ten seconds later, a mop of blonde hair could be seen exiting the back room, books stacked high enough to obscure her field of vision. She set them down on the nearby counter, and for a brief moment Raoul could see she had a pair of cat ears mottled with spots. He swore that he heard her mutter something about not expecting this to be what it was.

"Welcome to Tukson's Book Trade-" And as she looked over to address her customer, two grey eyes met a lone orange eye. Almost immediately Raoul could see the barest look of apprehension cross her face, before disappearing. "What can I help you with?"

"Mostly looking to see what all is new around here. Place has been pretty good to me so far." As he stepped in and closed the door, he went to looking for anything related to mechanical engineering. Hey, if he had struck gold with the Bullhead and Scroll manuscripts, then why not go for a turkey?

'_So this is the guy that walked in on those two trying to off Tukson..._' The blonde Faunus warily watched the seven-foot tall man browse the shelves. '_It had to have been a lucky break..._'

It was about ten minutes later that he walked up to the front desk, setting down a book to purchase. She took a look at it to ring up the price, and found herself mildly surprised at his choice of reading material - an old manual on electronic reconstruction.

"25 Lien." The money was handed over, and the book was now his. "Come back again."

"Certainly." As he exited the store, she found her opinion of this character changing a bit. Not many people would walk in and ask for something like that. Usually it was the aspiring Hunter teen looking for comics or some other nonsensical material.

**Commercial District, 10:55 A.M.**

Raoul continued on his way through the streets. Thinking on it, the CCT should be back online by now. He flipped out the filched Scroll and opened it up, connecting it to the main network.

Indeed, the tower looked to be back up and running at full capacity. Satisfied at that, he flipped over the extra menu and brought up his friend's app. The screen went white once more, and as the arrow denoting this Scroll formed, several more blue dots began to show up around them.

'_Looks to be working pretty well._'

'_I still see room for improvement, but at the very least it'll give us something to work off of._'

He felt his left arm shift slightly, signaling that the final batch of parts for the transmitter were ready to be extracted. That could be taken care of once they got back to the base.

'_I'm gonna have scars all up and down this arm at this rate._'

'_I hear some people are into scars... while we're on the subject, since this is our option for creating our gear, maybe we should get the Item Diver parts prepared as well._'

'_You said you still have the diagnostics and other files within memory... let's get the transmitter finished first, then find a place to launch it from. If this works as intended then we'll know that we can get the Diver parts constructed._'

Back towards the base they went. As they headed back, Raoul closed up the filched Scroll and pocketed it.

**The Base, 12:32 P.M.**

Carefully cutting his left arm open once more, Raoul carefully fished for the grown parts.

'_Yeah, we're gonna take a fair break before we start making the Item Diver parts._'

'_Agreed. I'm going to use that time to double-check our files._'

The parts extracted and now lying on a paper towel sheet, he used another healing spell to close his arm back up and restore it. After taking a moment to make certain he still was able to operate his left arm, he immediately went to putting the parts together to finish the transmitter, his companion occasionally directing him as to which piece would be installed where.

Around 25 minutes (and some reconfiguring) later, the transmitter was complete, a small cylindrical tube of violet and green. It looked like something fissioned off of his left arm, which wouldn't be too far off in accuracy. A small eye, violet in color, opened near its top.

"OK, here goes..." Pressing his left hand's eye to the transmitter's own, the recording began.

"Hey Mita, Atreya, Carl... everyone. It's us. We're both alive, somehow. I don't know the exact details, but our current location is a world called Remnant. This world's got its own hangups, but if things go as expected, you should be able to come extract us or form a pickup gate if you're able to track this signal." Raoul then went silent to let his companion speak her piece.

"This world, Remnant, has some interesting technology and resources, but as Mr. Raoul said, this place has its own problems, kinda like what happened in the other world. Either way, it'll be great to see you all again. Look for a shattered moon - its nearby world is where we are."

The recording complete, he removed his hand from the transmitter, and the eye upon it shifted from its violet color to green, signifying that the recording was a success. His companion listended intently, switching her internal receiver onto different wavelengths to ensure that this would work. It was about three minutes later that she spoke up.

"All right, I'm able to hear the message on the wavelengths that Mita should be able to pick up. Looks like everything is in order. Now we just need to find a location with which to launch this into space."

To that, Raoul opened his personal Scroll up to look up a general topographical map of Remnant. Mountainous regions would work, though he could always fly out over an ocean and give the transmitter a serious fling into space. While Vale had some areas he could potentially use, his initial entry point into Remnant would also work as a good launching point, given how far it was from the Kingdoms.

"If we're going to send it out, might also be a good idea to either do so late at night or early in the morning."

With the plan set, they began looking over the schematics for the Diver.

Meanwhile, within Vale itself, multiple Bullheads were taking off from Beacon Academy. As part of their curriculum, many first and second-year students would be shadowing professional Hunters in the field. One of these Bullheads went right overhead the Base... towards Mountain Glenn.

Little had anyone known or realized what this string of events would lead to, as within that Bullhead were four students, one of them carrying a canine companion, all shadowing one very quirky Professor... excuse me, Doctor.

**The Base, 10:45 P.M.**

'_Should be late enough now._' With only about an hour to go until this timezone hit midnight, Raoul picked up the transmitter and made his way out of the house. As he was far enough south in Vale that nobody should see him, he unfurled his wings and took to the sky, flying south and down towards his initial impact location. He arrived within seconds, hovering above the crater.

'_OK, this spot should do it._' Now flying further skyward, he felt himself hitting the upper atmospheric layers. Breathable air would be close to non-existant at this height, but being a demon, he didn't need oxygen, and he had experience in being in the upper layers from his previous worlds' excursions. Charging a bit of his personal mana into the transmitter to ensure it would properly send the message out, he turned and flung the transmitter towards the moon.

He watched carefully as the transmitter left his field of vision, steadily flying towards Remnant's natural, albeit broken satellite. If his calculations were right, then the transmitter would touch down on the most solid piece of the moon, ensuring that it wouldn't randomly drift off elsewhere.

Sure enough, about a minute later the transmitter made its mark on the moon, and after confirmation from his companion that the signal was readable from this distance, dropped back down to Remnant. Time to head back.

**Present Time, Interrogation Room, 11:38 A.M.**

"And well, as far as this morning went..." Nelius tilted his head towards where the Police Station's entrance was. "Kinda speaks for itself."

Now was the time to confront the Goliath in the room. Ozpin mentally sighed, knowing all too well what this meant confronting.

'_The Council is going to not like this..._'

"Speaking of which.." Raoul's companion soon spoke up. "How exactly did you all take notice of us amidst everything that was going on?"

"I noticed you when I was responding to that call." Glynda took over answering this one. "Torchwick's known to go after Dust stores in the dead of night, so seeing him try an early-morning heist was certainly curious."

"That said, how did you get caught up in all of this?" Ironwood dropped the big question on everyone's minds.

"Would you believe it was happenstance? I woke a bit early this morning, and since I couldn't go back to sleep, figured that walking around Vale would burn some time."

Chapter 9- Complete


	10. Chapter 10

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Shift**

Chapter 10: Reach the Present

Nelius found himself waking early this time, a quick glance at his personal Scroll confirming that it was only around 6:45 in the morning. With a slight huff he closed his eye and tried to go back to sleep, but several minutes passed before it was quickly proved a futile effort.

'_Well here I am, awake already._' No use in simply sitting around. He flipped out of his hammock and stretched, getting his relaxed muscles warmed up. A growl from his stomach told him that grabbing some food might be a good idea.

With gauntlets and gun secured, he headed out. He figured he wouldn't need his axe for a simple stroll, and if a request did come in, he could drop into an alley and summon it out beforehand.

**Monday, September 12**

**Vale Commercial District, 7:30 A.M.**

The sun was barely rising over the horizon as another work day was about to get underway. However, what few people even realized was that something was headed their direction.

Nelius browsed around the Commercial District as he finished eating a breakfast sandwich comprised of two strips of bacon, a folded fried egg and some cheese on a toasted bagel. His eye was busy checking the local shops he had yet to visit as he flipped through his Scroll to figure out which remaining parts would need to be studied and then crafted for the Dual Diver.

Some of the shops wouldn't be open for another hour or two, so that left wandering around for a little while.

'_Might as well burn some time with some sight-seeing._' Most of the places he'd been to were either business-oriented or for food. Scroll in-hand, he began flipping through to see if there were any points of interest that Vale had become known for.

Then again, he'd pretty much been all over most of these districts already, so there wasn't a whole lot left to look into. In that case, he might as well flip through a few news groups, see what else was going on elsewhere.

**Vale Commercial District, 7:43 A.M.**

Roman Torchwick waited inside of an alley nearest one of the Dust Stores, waiting for Cinder's signal to begin the ploy. A few of the Axe Gang members were hidden nearby, also waiting for Roman to receive the signal.

'_This had best be worth it._' Cinder had been insisting that things were all going according to schedule, but if all the prior evidence was any indication, someone was definitely onto her scheme.

About two minutes later, his Scroll pinged, and sure enough, Cinder was giving him the go-ahead to hit up the shop, her team already on their way to "apprehend" him. With a simple wave to the other members, he slipped out and carefully broke into the shop alongside the gang members. Sure enough, within minutes they had obtained the Dust, though Roman knew that this shop in particular had a new alarm system. In fact, that had been the reason why this one was selected... they wanted to have as many witnesses as possible to solidify the story.

Exiting the shop alongside the gang members, Roman took off down a particular side street, one that had been agreed upon for the ploy to be successful. He could hear police sirens in the distance, signifying that things were going as planned. Partway down this side-street, he had a part of the group fission off with the goods while he prepared to take the heat.

As he turned down another alley to wait for Cinder's group to find him, he could hear a few of the Axe Gang members suddenly giving shouts of alarm, followed up with the sounds of the members being swiftly defeated. Immediately, he turned around - and what awaited him wasn't Cinder or her group, but some incredibly tall guy with an eyepatch that was dispatching the Axe Gang members with ease.

The tall guy grabbed one Axe Gang member by the wrist when he tried to swing his crimson hand-axe at the giant, and with one casual movement flipped the gang member ass over tea kettle onto the pavement, taking him out.

'_That's odd... Cinder didn't say anything about getting a new friend._' Torchwick didn't get much of an opportunity to dwell on this, as the brunette man was going on the attack, having already dispatched the Axe Gang members. He brought his cane up to shoot a Dust round at the brunette, only for his assailant to pull out some weird gun and fire at the same time.

Both rounds collided, creating a loud BANG that he was certain had to have gotten the attention of both Cinder's group and Vale Law Enforcement. Through the smoke the brunette man emerged, fists aimed for Torchwick's face. The career criminal was immediately on the defensive, only barely managing to keep ahead of this stranger, but it was as he brought his cane up to deflect an attack the stranger punched _through_ it, shattering his favored weapon into splinters.

'_Ohhh shit..._' His favored cane had been a part of his ensemble for years, but his general feelings of anger over its destruction were muted by the fact that this character could potentially do the same to him! He couldn't speak for anyone else, but he preferred to be in one piece.

Torchwick turned to get the hell out of dodge, but he had only gotten about six feet away before Raoul immediately darted over with clearly inhuman speed, and with one swift kick the criminal was nursing one hell of a stomachache as the wind was solidly knocked from him. He didn't get a chance to recover from this, as with one twisting motion that same foot delivered a heeldrop, knocking the criminal out cold as his head hit the pavement.

Unbeknownst to Raoul, a certain blonde woman, one Glynda Goodwitch, had caught sight of him out of the corner of her eye whilst out on a morning patrol, no doubt drawn due to the explosion of Roman's Dust round, and whilst he was busy taking the criminal down, the Headmistress of Beacon Academy was quickly trying to pull up any recorded information of him.

What had really caught her attention was a noted lack of trackable Aura on this character - her Scroll showed nothing on that department. Then again, while it would explain his pragmatic fighting methods, it also raised other questions... what did he train against to be able to shatter someone's weapon in a single blow? If he did get his Aura unlocked, how much more powerful would he have become?

Unsurprisingly, no concrete information came back about a character matching his description, though it appeared that she was not the only one that had taken notice of him, as a character matching his description was noted from eyewitness testimony concerning an Axe Gang heist months ago. A pending message notification came up as she was in the midst of reviewing this. Opening it up, she saw it was from Ozpin.

{Glynda, might there be a reason you're looking up this one?}

{This one was found apprehending Torchwick.} Manipulating her Scroll, she sent the Headmaster some quickly recorded footage of the aforementioned man shattering Torchwick's cane before disabling him. {It would appear this isn't the first time he's been within the Kingdom.}

{The reports I gathered mentioned him being quite adept at fighting and fulfilling some extermination requests that usually required a full team. I see now they weren't empty words.}

{Shall I detain him?}

{Get whatever information you can from him. James and I will be on our way to personally speak with him... he's done much more than just fight off Grimm, it would seem.}

Closing her Scroll, Glynda turned to the officers and had them go apprehend Torchwick and his hired help, one calling for a medical unit to come in. Ironwood would be on his way to transfer Torchwick to a higher-security prison after taking care of a little business.

However, this was where things took a turn for the unusual, as tremors could be felt throughout the area. Both Goodwitch and Raoul stopped.

'_Hang on... I thought Vale never got earthquakes._'

The tremors were getting stronger... no, they were approaching from outside Vale.

'_From that direction- wait, that's from the southeast area.._'

Further into the city, the remains of an engine car jutted up through the street, and those that didn't immediately scatter in full panic mode would've found four very familiar students emerge from what looked like a icy, flower-esque bubble. Law enforcement was pouring into the area as officials visiting from Atlas also began to swarm the scene. Looks like someone had some explaining to do...

Within the jutting train, several White Fang members were being carried out by one of Beacon's Professors, and he was being assisted by what looked to be a grey and white corgi... said dog was remarkably strong for its size, able to drag a few Fang members by himself.

'_A train, and Fang members... were they trying to use Mountain Glenn as a base?_' Raoul observed for a moment as more Fang members were pulled from the train car. Perhaps a trip into the desolate expansion project would be in order...

"Sir." Glynda immediately caught Raoul's attention as she walked up.

'_Hey, ain't this that woman from months back?_'

"I was hoping you could answer some questions..."

"I see no reason to refuse at this moment. Where should we start?"

**Meanwhile...**

On the other side of the area, Cinder found herself in a bit of a tight spot as she caught sight of the arrest, Goodwitch already conversing with some brunette man in a jacket. Goodwitch got to Torchwick first, but considering his prolific career in thievery, he ought to be confined on one of Ironwood's ships, putting him in position for her plans to continue forward. From what tidbits she was able to hear, this random stranger had gotten there ahead of her, putting Torchwick down rather swiftly.

'_No matter. He's done our work for us._'

"...Em, it's him." Mercury hissed to Emerald, the latter of whom didn't even respond to her unofficial nickname. The memory of how he had killed their chances to take out Tukson was still fresh in their minds. Seeing that he could take down Torchwick with ease proved that his muscle wasn't for show. The temptation to go after him was immense, but Cinder hadn't yet known that it was his interference that prevented Tukson's death, and they weren't keen on letting her know.

"Focus on that for later." The green-haired thief chided her teammate. For now, he'd live. They'd get their chance later on, once Cinder's plan was underway.

The trio began to head back towards Beacon.

**Back with Glynda...**

"Either way, I couldn't just let him walk off." Raoul finished explaining on how and why he had chosen to go after such a prolific criminal.

"On that note..." A new voice halted whatever he was about to say next. As he turned around to see who had addressed him, he saw a silver-haired man in green, a cane of sorts in his hand. "I was hoping you might be able to answer some questions I also happened to have."

During this time, Glynda had taken a moment to aid in the cleanup of the interjecting train car, making use of her Semblance to send the car back down into the old tunnels, before sealing the makeshift entrance back over.

Raoul quirked a brow at this.

"This way, if you don't mind." The silver-haired man gestured for the tall demon to follow him. "I know of a much more private place to chat about this incident."

**Vale, 8:11 A.M.**

Around the same time that Nelius was being lead into town by Ozpin and Glynda, Mercury and Emerald were on a Bullhead travelling back to Beacon, Cinder doing some last-minute checks on the operation.

Mercury wasn't bothering to listen to Cinder's subtle gloating over how, even with this unexpected development, everyone and everything was in place for the next stage of their operation. Instead, he had taken to staring out the nearby window. Seeing that brunette man out there made his blood boil over; it was like his presence was mocking him over how the prevention of Tukson's death got Emerald and him into hot water with Cinder...

Once Cinder's plan was in full swing, he was going to take the opportunity to put that brunette interloper into the ground. Sure, he might've put Torchwick down, but Mercury fought by a very different set of rules.

**Present Day, Interrogation Room, 11:45 A.M.**

"And that's what has brought us to this moment." Nelius concluded.

"I do thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Raoul." Ozpin was the first to speak up. "Having heard about all of this does shed a new light upon this situation." Outwardly he had seemed the calm, rational Headmaster, but internally he was adding things up, coming to the conclusions he had pieced together.

Ironwood's mind was going about at a frentic pace. When Ozpin had called him down to help question someone brought in, just mere minutes after the apprehension of one of Remnant's Most Wanted followed by what looked like a Fang attempt to upheave the city, he had imagined it to be someone from among those that had committed either act. Instead, he had borne witness to the story of this so-called demon, Nelius Raoul, and his apparent AI companion... if their testimony was indeed truthful, then there was an entire race of people equally as strong as he, if not potentially more so, and he intended to call them here just to help him get home. Yet, at the same time, he had uncovered so much evidence of multiple plots... the attempt to steal the Autumn Maiden's powers, the Dust thefts... how was it that a lone being, an effective alien to Remnant, was able to find out what trained investigators could not?

'_Such irony to be found here._' He grimly noted as he tuned back into the conversation.

"Regardless, as stated before, even if your actions helped Vale through returning stolen goods to their owners and aiding in rounding up a notorious criminal... vigilantism, theft of Atlesian property, not to mention technical squatting... these cannot be overlooked so easily."

Ozpin mentally sighed. '_Leave it to James to focus on the minor issues at hand..._'

"Well then, how do you suggest I exonerate myself for such?" Nelius looked the General dead in the eye, whom had gone silent as he processed this information.

"In a matter such as this... I would have to suggest full cooperation with us to finally unravel this situation. As it stands, you have key information that could lead to a much more peaceful defusing of this scenario."

"Perhaps, but at the same time there's still a lot to be learned, such as why this Fall woman wants to see Vale badly crippled, alongside why she'd go after this Autumn Maiden with that Grimm insect."

Ozpin had his suspicions pretty tightly secured as to why this Cinder was doing such, but he was willing to see how things played out, and if any more evidence would further solidify his thoughts. This unknown factor had brought so much evidence to the table, yet he was apprehensive about sharing his perspective on the matter.

"If that's everything accounted for, then I believe this is the part where I head home for the time being." Nelius had already stood up.

"Your reason being?" Ironwood interjected.

"Well, I do have that Bullhead down there, alongside the Scroll I picked up. I mean, if you're saying I can hold onto them-"

"I would have to say otherwise. You also promised a chance to see that recording." The demon shrugged.

"I tried. Any place you want the Bullhead dropped off at?"

"I believe the Docks should suffice. Plenty of room to ensure a successful delivery." Ozpin suggested, one that Ironwood broached no real objection towards. "As for the Scroll... perhaps one of your Specialists can help in decoding it, James?"

"I see no reason why they shouldn't be able to."

"Very well. See you soon." With that, the otherworldly demon got up, bid them a politeful farewell, collected his gear from the General, and was off. It was about two minutes before the Atlas General turned to address Beacon's headmaster, now that their topic of interest was out of earshot.

"Ozpin, what are you thinking?"

"James, I understand your trepidation towards him, especially after everything he's both told and shown us over the last few hours. Even I admit to some level of hesitance about how to address him, given what we still have yet to know..."

"But..."

"...but if he is someone truly dangerous, it may be a far better idea to keep such danger pointed away from us. His abilities may not be completely understood, but if they can be put towards finally concluding this issue..."

**Outside the Station, 11:49 A.M.**

As Nelius headed back towards the south to bring the Bullhead back up to the Docks, he could see the people of Vale trying to go back to their daily routines, but in the back of his mind he could feel the mounting tension welling up within many of them.

Sure, Torchwick had been captured and locked up, and the Fang's apparent Breach attempt had been quickly dealt with before it could potentially become something worse, but Cinder and her two were still within the Kingdom's walls, and if Torchwick's hand in all of this could be considered complete, then what else could she be planning?

'_No doubt in my mind now._' Epsilon spoke up. '_That Cinder woman must be planning on running Vale imto the ground._'

'_Definitely sounds like a smash and grab mixed with a slash and burn. We need to make her trip herself up before the next strike so she can be taken down._'

As he made his way back south, a certain red-eyed corvid was watching this... its curiosity stoked by this effective unknown being the subject of Ozpin's curiosity, not to mention how well it fought to take down Torchwick. It began putting its own plans together to investigate this character.

**Atlas Prison Vessel, 12:23 P.M.**

With the story and interrogation now done, Ironwood had gone back to the ship that currently had Torchwick under solitary confinement. After a quick stop to answer a call from the Vale Council, he headed into the cell block. Approaching one cell in particular, he instructed the two on-duty guards to back away, so he could have a chat with the criminal held within. The door opened, revealing its held captive.

"I've been informed that you've refused all requests to cooperate with the authorities." To this, Torchwick had merely raised his head to look at the General, a snide remark already working its way up. There was a bruise that could be seen on his head above his right eye, even though several bandages did their best to cover it up.

"Might be a bit of a shocker here, General, but the local law enforcement and I aren't exactly on the best of terms."

"And what of Remnant's strongest military power?" The General simply crossed his arms over his chest, staring the longtime thief down.

"First impressions... leaves a lot to be desired." Undeterred by this flippant answer, Ironwood simply continued on.

"One chance, Torchwick... one chance to confirm whom is really behind this."

"I thought it was obvious, General..." Torchwick leaned forward before sitting a bit more upright with a defiant grin on his face, Ironwood raising a brow in question. "You're looking at him!"

"Hm. We'll see how long that belief holds up." At that, Ironwood began to walk off, the guards getting ready to move back into position.

"Aw, come on. I thought you wanted to talk." With the door to the cell still open, Torchwick was able to lean out just enough to continue heckling Ironwood. The two guards were close enough that he didn't dare press any chance of trying to run. Bullets in his back weren't exactly comfortable.

"We'll have plenty of chances to talk." Ironwood replied back to the career criminal. "The Council and I had a bit of a discussion before I arrived. They've given me custody over you for as long as I see fit. So I hope you're comfortable in there."

"Oh, lovely." He waited for the General to be out of earshot, then began chuckling to himself as the cell door closed. '_Old Ironwood has no idea of what Cinder has in store for this city.._' His face then turned a bit pensive. '_Hopefully Neo won't cause them too much trouble._'

'_Not speaking of that Cinder woman at all..._' Ironwood thought back on Raoul's testimony, and with him due to drop off the stolen Bullhead and the Scroll for study, figured that now would be a perfect time to arrange a meeting in the future, namely to call in that favor...

**Beacon, Ozpin's Office, 12: 24 A.M.**

Ozpin heaved something of a tired sigh as he looked out over Vale.

The Vale Council had called in, regarding the capture of Roman Torchwick alongside the Fang's attempted breach. While this was a momentous occasion, the fact that it had taken this long to finally corral him had them feeling less than impressed, not to mention how the Fang had managed to acquire enough resources beneath his watch. In turn, they had placed Ironwood in charge of security for the upcoming Vytal Festival.

His position as Beacon Academy Headmaster was also going to be called into question once the Vytal Festival concluded next month.

He already had a sinking feeling as to how this was going to go. While James had his heart in the right place, investing in robotics to keep people off the battlefield, the androids had something of an uncanny appearance to them, even with his earlier advertisements. Undoubtedly people would be a touch apprehensive of them, and to potentially have so many of them around Vale as security would make people a little too nervous. All it'd take was enough people getting nervous to start getting the attention of the Grimm, and even with Vale's natural defenses and trained Hunters, the Grimm would have plenty of avenues with which to come visit... and of course there was what Team RWBY had found out about the White Fang's use of the old Mountain Glenn tunnels.

All he could hope was that Cinder's plans would be brought to a halt. She was already within Beacon's walls, and must be planning her next move already. Still, his mind couldn't help but return to the thought of that glove with the sigil upon it, as Raoul had described it to him.

He needed to gather some extra evidence on the side, but had to do so in a way that wouldn't tip his hand too early. If Cinder cottoned onto his suspicions, then it'd be more than likely she'd go to ground and make her escape afterwards... and if it turned out that Cinder was indeed reporting to whom he had in mind...

'_Perhaps his friend's recording can shed more light on this..._'

**Southern Vale, 1:03 P.M.**

"Well, so much for that mobile base idea." Nelius idly thought aloud as he did some last-minute checks over the Bullhead. "Guess I'll have to acquire one the legitimate way."

"Won't lie, that might take a long while." His companion responded as she did her own fine-tuning, getting the tracking program recorded and copied down to her own memory banks so she could add them to his legitimate Scroll. "But I have been wrong before. We'll just have to see where the chips may fall."

"Thinking back on it, back during the War with No Victor, there was widespread use of Pocket Netherworlds. If I knew how to make one, it'd solve our base issues real quick."

"The War with No Victor... don't think I've heard too much of that one before."

"Wouldn't be too surprised. It was said to have erupted rather quickly, and then ended in a single night. Details on that event are still a bit sparse, even with it having happened a fair time ago."

With everything in order, the Bullhead lifted into the sky, and turned towards the docks. Within seconds it took off.

**Vale Docks, 1:08 P.M.**

The Bullhead slowed its pace as it approached several Atlesian Craft that were nearby. Tilting the engines vertically, Nelius slowly landed the craft.

"Man these things are far too sensitive." As he stepped out of it, a pair of Atlas guards swiftly stepped up to reclaim the craft, checking over the systems for any anomalies or anything they could use. Reaching into his pocket, he handed over the Scroll he had nabbed from Torchwick's men months back. However, after it was claimed...

"Your other Scroll."

"Huh?"

"Ironwood wishes to speak with you at a later date. This is so he may contact you."

"Ah."

With that cleared up, Nelius handed his personal Scroll over, and a few seconds later his Scroll's number had been sent to Ironwood's. With that, they returned his Scroll to him, and departed back to their posts.

'_Wow, friendly bunch..._' Business concluded for the time being, the pair began to head back to the Commercial District, to see if any of the parts stores were open yet.

However, he had gotten barely halfway there before he got the feeling that someone was tailing him. A quick glance around revealed nothing suspicious, but as he entered into the Commercial District's borders, that feeling flared up again. Eye narrowed, he decided to lure his pursuer further south, towards the abandoned parts of the Residential District. Once there, he wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting caught in the potential crossfire.

Deliberately taking a slow, twisting path through Vale, Nelius lured his potential stalker towards the far southeast end of the Kingdom, where most people didn't dare to tread after the Mountain Glenn disaster.

Feeling that he had gotten far enough away from any other prying eyes, which easily took him about twenty or so minutes, he walked in-between two of the abandoned houses, mostly to give himself enough cover and time to summon his axe out from its resting place within his right wing. Keeping it concealed beneath his jacket as best he could, he continued on his path, just waiting for whomever it was that was tailing him to reveal themself.

It was about another minute before that feeling of being tailed swiftly changed... in fact, it felt a LOT like the same signature that Amber had given off when she was being assailed by Cinder's group, and as he turned and pulled his axe from its hiding spot beneath his jacket he caught sight of a swift red and black blur very close to his person, and within microseconds his weapon clashed with a dark red blade. Weapons locked, he took appraisal of whomever this was.

This figure was clad in red and black armor, with matching gauntlets and black boots. Judging from the breastplace and skirt, this person was female, and a bit of a pallard one as well if the scant bits of skin were anything to go by. Black hair flowed out from behind what looked like a Grimm Mask, only it was much more avian in its appearance, and covered her entire face. At her left side was what looked like a massive sheath, one easily able to house several more blades like the one caught against his axe.

"Hell of a way to greet someone." Nelius snarked as he stared down this individual. She didn't share his sentiment, as the second she pulled her blade away she lashed out at him with it, going for a rising diagonal slash from his left. Quickly flipping his axe around to a reverse-grip, he brought the axehead up to block the slash. Axehead met blade, sparks flying from the impact.

The blade-wielding woman repositioned her blade for a slash at his midsection, only for him to use his gauntlet-covered right hand to palm slap the attack away. He decided to counter with a slash of his own, one going for her face, only for her to quickly back away. She sought to capitalize on the swing by closing the distance, blade at the ready. She let loose several quick slashes, the majority of which were blocked by his axe, but when he sent a surprisingly quick swing of his free hand out, it caught the side of her blade, shattering it into red shards as she decided to put a little space between them.

Nelius kept his weapon at the ready, eye staring down his mystery assailant as he prepared to get his gun out. She rotated something in her sheath, and planted her hilt into it, drawing a new dark blue blade out from it, but rather than press another attack, she sliced at the air behind herself, a blood-red portal coming into existence.

'_Wait, this broad can make portals?_'

'_I'm sensing no magic from it... maybe it's another Semblance?_'

"Trusting Ozpin is a mistake." With those words, she slipped through the portal. It closed about a second later.

'_Who the hell was that, and what's her grudge against Ozpin?_'

'_Guess we'll have to ask him in person next time we meet up._' He reached down to pick up the shards of the woman's shattered blade, idly checking them over. '_Is this Dust?_'

Unbeknownst to Nelius and his friend, a certain other bird had been watching the short tussle. It found this situation rather interesting, and left to put a few notes together.

Chapter 10- Complete


	11. Chapter 11

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"  
'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 11: Stepping Up

A few days had passed since the interrogation. With Torchwick locked up and all Dust thievery coming to a screeching halt, all seemed rosy for Vale.

Nelius, however, knew better. From what he had learned during the interrogation, Cinder and her associates were posing as Haven students within Beacon, letting Torchwick take most of the heat whilst she continued to drum up new schemes. There was also the Fang's seemingly random train job, which had most everyone on edge, fearing they might try it again, especially with the upcoming Vytal Festival on the horizon.

If Cinder was to be stopped, then her ultimate game plan needed to be sniffed out and quashed beforehand.

There was still about a month or so before the Vytal Festival was to be hosted in Vale, so there was some wiggle room in that regard, plenty of time to not only figure out Cinder's scheme, but also get the Dual Diver's construction and testing finished, alongside ironing out any potential bugs.

For the past four days, he had kept around his base of operations, only venturing out to either obtain funds through Grimm extermination postings, or use those funds to get some more food and drink, as the construction of the parts within his arm did take a fair bit of energy to piece together. More of those robots he had seen in the interim were beginning to show up around Vale, likely as security. People were looking a touch apprehensive of these machines, probably due to their uncanny likeness.

With the extraction of the final pieces for the machine, Nelius sealed his left arm back up, then did a quick test to ensure it was still in functioning condition... fingers flexed, wrist rotated, all's good. The Diver's assembly was coming along at a fair enough pace, the two of them taking their time to ensure the components were properly installed.

"Finally done with that." His companion gave a sigh of relief as the final test of his left arm completed. "Please let us never have to do this ever again."

"Well, if this works as intended, you'll have your wish, and then some."

With the last component installed, he walked around to the power compartment, which was on the back end. One of the parts he had picked up was a scrapped power converter generally used for higher-end machinery, one that made use of Electric Dust crystals. If this didn't work, he still had the batteries from his gauntlets as a back-up measure. He double-checked the connections to ensure that nothing was out of place.

"Everything is set..." He inserted two Electric Crystals into the power converter, closed the safety door and then flipped the switch to power the machine on, and as it hummed to life, he headed back around to the front, checking for any errors on the readout for the next minute or so, conferring with his friend. "No anomalies detected... power supply's looking stable.. I think we're ready for a test run."

"Which one should we test first?"

"I'd say the Item Diver should be up first. We'll probably be using that the most, given what it can do for our situation." Gently opening the machine's left side hatch, a juryrigged scanning unit sat behind a pane of glass, and a fair bit of the table was cordoned off for the item they would be using for this test. Now came the question of which item would be the test...

The first item up for consideration was his gauntlets. These had been with him since before his entire journey began, a gift from his father. With the extra additions fixed up, a dive could potentially enhance their abilities.

The next item was his axe. Initially made to be nothing more than decoration, his multiple adventures proved it to be surprisingly effective in his many battles.

Then there was the gun that he had obtained from his friends before the home stretch of the events that ended up leading him here. It was the least worked on, given that it was a replacement for his broken and scrapped former model, so it would benefit from a catch-up.

He ultimately decided to start simple. He grabbed his rebuilt gauntlets and placed them within the cordoned area on the table. Walking around to the readout, he hit a few switches to begin the process.

"All right, firing this up..." The process ready to go, he walked around to the right side of the machine, whereupon he gently slid a panel away, revealing circuitry within that began to light up. Within seconds a swirling green vortex-like portal flickered into view before stabilizing, stretching more than tall enough for him to walk into.

He took one last look at the readout. No errors were being shown, the power was stable and holding...

"First test, underway."

With that, he walked back around to the machine's right side and into the green vortex.

**The Infinite Depths of the Item Dimension**

**Shatterpact Reborn, Floor 1**

All that could be seen around was a dark blue vortex, multiple items ranging from swords and staves to shields and sets of armor slowly being drawn into the center. The only landmass that could be seen here looked like it had been ripped from a hydration-starved land. There were a few scant vines that broke through this ground, each one having thorns large enough to impale someone upon. Upon this landmass emerged Nelius.

"It looks like it worked."

"So far, this is good for us. Still, let's not pat ourselves on the back just yet - we need to ensure this works in its entirety." His companion chimed in.

"Of course."

There was a circular platform over on one end of the landmass. The orange glow signified that it was the gate which lead to the next floor. A few pedestals with crystalline blue fists were scattered about the landmass as well. However, in-between Nelius and that gate were several fascimilies of beings that he had grown up knowing of.

Within an item dwelled the Notorious, malicious-hearted creations that had only one goal... to kill those whom would enter their domain. The forms that these Notorious would take often depended on what item was being explored, so an item primarily from the Netherworld would have Notorious that resembled its myriad denizens.

The more Notorious that were defeated within an item, the greater its strength would become. In a way, it could be considered like the removal of impurities within metal, or for more complicated measures, the disassembly, cleaning and reassembly of one's gear, though the empowering process was a permanent one.

Warriors of both sexes, Dragons of varying forms, Wood Golems... after having to face so many trials and enemies that he had to learn about on the fly, it was something of a relief to see beings that he knew of. Down here, he could release his wings and fight with his full strength once again, having no need to restrict himself.

"Man, I have missed this~" With something of a genuine grin, he unsheathed his axe and prepared to fight as those Notorious took notice of him and prepared to attack.

**Friday, September 16**

**Beacon Academy, 9:32 A.M.**

Ozpin noticed that there was some interference coming from the Emerald Forest relay towers, which housed security software that kept tabs on any activity out that way - which was usually the Grimm moving about. Normally he'd send out a repair team shadowed by some Hunters in order to figure out what was the issue, but something about this interference felt less like a blackout and more like an attempted possession, what with several bits of information and video feed randomly tracing to elsewhere.

If someone was trying to hijack the network, then this would lead to issues down the road. Immediately he brought up his list of available Hunters to see whom would be available to undertake a quick overview of the situation. After a few minutes, he quickly learned that most of the Hunters that he would normally ask were busy doing the shadowing missives for the students that were in their second year onward in the curriculum.

He'd have to dip into asking some of the first-year teams to investigate... and almost immediately his thoughts turned to Team RWBY, whom had somehow ended up at the docks when the crossfire between the Axe Gang and the White Fang had happened, not to mention their foray into Mountain Glenn had caused the Fang's breach attempt to happen potentially ahead of schedule. Much as he was figuring not to inform them, he had a sneaking suspicion that they'd end up out there anyway...

Well, perhaps this could be a good learning experience for them. However, he wasn't going to allow them to go into this blind... he reached over and brought up his screen.

"Peter, are you busy right now?" Appearing on the screen was an elderly man with grey hair and a moustache.

"Headmaster! I was finishing grading a few papers. How might I help?"

"There's been some odd interference with our network in the Emerald Forest..."

**Item Dimension Depths, 10:11 A.M.**

**Shatterpact Reborn, Floor 99**

Nelius brought his axe down on another Notorious, this one in the shape of a native Netherworld beast known as an Imp, splitting its head in twain alongside the rest of its body. It disappeared in into a pink mist. With that, there were no more enemies on this floor, which was tiled with images of what looked like old 8-bit gaming graphics.

He used the orange gate to enter the 100th Floor, which had its terrain raised up like an immense ziggurat. At the top of this structure was another Notorious, but one that was much stronger than its kin.

Every ten floors within an item would bring travelers to a floor such as this, where a strong Notorious, the Item General, would await a battle against them. Defeating the Item General would bestow a bonus in growth to the item in question. However, on floors 30, 60 and 90, they would instead do battle against an Item King, whom was much stronger than an Item General, and as such, gave a larger bonus.

But here... here, every 100 Floors, one would do battle against the Item God, the most powerful among the Notorious. Defeating one of these granted an immense boon to the item in question, and if those empowering the weapon had achieved a certain task, the Item God would be in possession of unique items to pilfer.

As the Notorious came after him, Nelius brought his axe to bear as he carved through these foes during his ascent, occasionally taking a moment to potshot any that tried hanging back for ranged combat. The Item God had taken notice of the fighting, and so decided to drop down to engage.

In comparison to the other Notorious, even the Item Generals and Kings, the Item God looked to be pitch black in color, only the whites of their eyes sticking out. A quick look told him that the Item God had opted to not take the form of one of the Netherworld denizens, but instead took the appearance of some kind of machine, one that he recognized right away.

Those machines had been running amok during his earliest days stuck in that other world, each one looking to have some kind of Mayan or Incan-centric appearance to them, and able to transform themselves into a variety of forms to attack and defend. It had been those machines from which Nelius had taken several of their parts to integrate into his gauntlets... the Huitzil.

The Item God wasted no time in going on the attack, activating the gauntlets' features as it closed the distance. Nelius brought his axe to bear as he deflected the bullets from the gauntlets, and as he got close enough, he brought his gun out and fired at the Item God, whom responded by using the shield units in the palms to deflect the gunfire. The laser blades in the gauntlet's index fingers were activated, and were brought to bear against the original owner, whom swiftly dodged around the attack.

**Emerald Forest Security Terminal, 10:12 A.M.**

Ruby Rose, one of Beacon Academy's younger students, sighed as her team finished up checking on the second terminal... and exterminating multiple Grimm that had decided to attack in the interim. Just like the previous terminal they had defended, this one had a device attached to it, the only clue being that mysterious M sigil that adorned it, alongside the few cages that were seen in the area. The Grimm were usually keen to attack any technology they came across.

Beacon's Grimm Studies Teacher, Peter Port, had been assigned to act as a guide for them as they investigated this mysterious security attack, but during the restoration he had mentioned doing a little research on this sigil, leaving the team a moment to rest up from the battle.

A couple of minutes later, their Scrolls buzzed, as Port sent them some information on his findings.

The sigil found belonged to Merlot Industries, an old Research and Development corporation that had been based in Mountain Glenn, and was believed to have also collapsed when the expansion project met its untimely end. Could someone have uncovered some of their assets and turned them towards harming Vale? If this was the case, they needed to be stopped before anything worse could happen.

Inwardly, Team RWBY was apprehensive about a revisit to Mountain Glenn. Doctor Oobleck, Beacon's History Professor, had made it very clear about how the town met its end at the hands of countless numbers of Grimm constantly assailing the place. They'd already encountered plenty of Grimm there whilst sniffing out where any of the White Fang had holed up within the desolate former town.

At the very least, Team JNPR was on stand-by to approach and help if they ended up getting in over their heads, since their own mission to another town had concluded two days prior and they were back at Beacon. However, Port broke their train of thought by assigning another of Beacon's Teachers in overseeing this investigation, someone whom knew the area far better than he.

"Hello again, Team RWBY!" A familiar voice greeted them over their Scrolls.

**Shatterpact Reborn, Floor 100**

**10:14 A.M.**

Sliding beneath a swing of the gauntlet's laser blade function, Nelius brought himself into a circular swing, his axe's head aimed squarely at the kneecaps of the Item God. Said enemy tried to use one of the gauntlets' barriers, but it had acted a second too late, and soon found its legs chopped off at the knees. As the Item God toppled over from the sudden loss of support, Nelius brought his axe back up, and in one fluid motion split the Item-dwelling God's head in twain, followed by the rest of its torso, sparks and circuitry flying as he sliced the robot in half.

The enemy soon faded away, its existence now turned towards empowering his gauntlets. With nothing left to do upon this floor, Nelius hopped down and headed over towards the orange gate. Here, a small, door-like item had formed upon the floor's clearance - a Mr. Gency's Exit, which was guaranteed to form whenever a floor containing one of the Item Bosses was cleared. It could be used to quickly leave the Item Dimension should one get in too far over their heads, or if an emergency situation meant they needed to leave, pronto.

Collecting the hand-sized door to add to his pile of acquired items, he stepped into the gate.

Whenever an Item Boss Floor was either cleared or skipped, Item Dimension travelers would get one of three options: to continue onwards immediately, return to the real world, or to head into the Innocents' Rest.

The Innocents' Rest, also known as the Innocents' Town / Island, is a small, safe haven in the merciless gauntlet that was the Item Dimension. Here, the benevolent denizens, the Innocents, had a place where travelers could rest up before assailing the next several floors. Depending on which iteration of Item Diving was used, there would be various characters here and there that one could encounter.

At minimum, there was a healer of some kind that would patch up any wounded... for a standard fee, of course. On occasion you'd also find a RosenQueen Vendor, selling items that often weren't available elsewhere.

Older iterations had an Assembly Guide, whom would let the travelers propose an upgrade for the item that usually wasn't available, such as making a weapon's reach longer by default. Back when the iteration gave the Item Dimension the appearance of a vast, endless ocean, there would've been a shop where you could switch what vessel you used as a base. You needed stronger vessels to get through the deeper floors, so acquisition of new ships through defeated roving Pirates was a must.

In this iteration, however, there was a Route Guide, someone whom would change what sort of path the deeper floors would take. One could decide to encounter more Innocents, and thus add even greater versitility towards their gear, or they could want to encounter more Mystery Rooms, where various boons and battles could be obtained.

The possibilities were nigh-endless, and all at the command of the travelers.

For the moment being, Nelius first looked over to the Healer, a blonde demon woman in a fur-trimmed robe. With her closed eyes and relaxed stance, she carried the air of someone you could trust to help patch up your wounds... of course, hailing from the Netherworld, some used that to their advantage to dole out extra pain to anyone that dropped their guard. Needless to say, some applicants to the Netherworld Hospital had to be "let go" due to many a circumstance involving some patients losing limbs and other extremities.

One particular case had one patient wake up with their entire skeleton missing, and their doctor nowhere to be seen. That's how you lose a license, folks.

Thanks to the Usatako Unit embedded in his left arm, courtesy of Epsilon's last-ditch effort to exist, her services wouldn't be needed for this excursion. He instead stopped over to talk with the RosenQueen vendor, whom was taking the form of one of the Badre Archers, young demon women with massive curly twintailed hair.

Much like the other world's Item Dive excursion, in place of actual HL he had obtained I.O.U. notes that would end up sufficing as currency for the dive. Wouldn't do very well to suddenly have another world's currency spontaneously forming elsewhere, now would it?

His forays through the prior floors had given him plenty of weapons and armor with which to sell. Her wares this time weren't going to be of too much use, so in exchange for the items he had on-hand, he nabbed a few Stealing Hands and some Somas to cap off the trip.

"Think this is a fair enough place to stop the test for today?"

"Overall, I'd count this as a successful run."

Finding the Dimensional Gatekeeper, taking the form one of the Iviore Sabercats, Nelius opted to exit. He could've visited the Route Guide, whom took the appearance of one of Toto Bunny's Rabbit Soldiers, but he'd have another chance to do so later, once everything was thoroughly tested further.

The exit formed, Nelius wasted no time in leaving.

**The Base, 10:21 A.M.**

The green-colored gate flickered into view, solidifying as Nelius stepped out of it. A few seconds later, it disappeared from view.

"And we're back." Wasting no time, Nelius strolled around to the left side of the Diver Machine and picked up the Shatterpact Gauntlets. They had a much cleaner and complete look to them overall, as if the wear and tear of time had been reversed, and as he donned them, he could feel that they were much stronger than before. "Excellent."

"OK, we know the Item Diver works. Up for trying the Soul Diver next?"

Nelius walked over to his personal Scroll and opened it up, seeing that it was now 10:22 in the morning. After adding in a few personal notes detailing the test, he stepped around to check on the Dust Crystals that were powering the machine. They looked fairly thinner than before, but were still in enough condition to continue onward. He added another note to put his gauntlets' batteries as the main power source if a long-enough dive were in the works.

"Should be more than enough time for a test. Let's fire it up." Saving his notes and closing his Scroll down, he headed over to the main control unit, and began running the configuration to close the Item Diver down and open the Soul Diver in its place.

Now mind you, Soul Diver wasn't the original name of this mechanic. Around the time of the Evil Academy Incident and the Hades' Dispute, this was originally known as the Chara World, the ability to dive within oneself and improve your own aspects. Given the connections this had to Evil Academy's Heart Vault, where one could store their own memories and secrets alongside valuables and such, a number of names had been considered for this - Aspect Enhancement, Developers' Descent... eventually Soul Diver stuck.

However, regardless of whether you were inside of a Heart Vault or the Soul Diver, one needed to be very careful in interacting with anything present, as even the most barren of hearts would react to the slighest of stimuli, and in many cases, leaving certain facets unsolved would cause an immense mental calamity...

With the machine set to go, Nelius headed back over to the machine's right side, where this time an orange colored gate swirled into existence. After waiting a moment to ensure the gate was stable, he walked through.

About thirty seconds later, a message pinged on his Scroll... the sender: James Ironwood.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart, 10:24 A.M.**

In the original iterations of the Soul Diver, one would immediately go into battle against various foes, including a perfect copy of the person whose soul you were delving into at the time of entry. Managing to defeat this copy would give an increase in that person's capabilities. Its second iteration adding in a rising floor that could be chipped away at, to reveal hidden bonuses. The third iteration played out something like a board game, with certain spaces leading to varying bonuses or penalties.

This iteration, however, would soon prove to be something completely different.

As Nelius stepped into this area, he found it to look much like the Netherworld where he had been born and raised... except that it looked barren, bereft of life. The trees looked far more withered and decayed than most Netherworld trees would look, there was barely any grass upon the ground that hadn't taken on a sickly yellow shade, and in the distance was a wrecked Overlord's Castle.

"...this is what's inside your heart?" His companion seemed a bit offput by this dessicated landscape. "Makes me wonder what mine looks like..."

"Might as well take a look around. It looks and feels a lot like home, but still..." He began walking towards the wrecked castle, recognizing a few of the sights as he made his way there. Past a gated wall that had multiple sections gouged out, one could see the town that lay within. Multiple houses lined the streets, occasionally mixing with a RosenQueen outlet store.

"...so, what's the story with this place?"

"Overlord I signed up to apprentice under suddenly went sour after a trip elsewhere. Eventually it got to the point where I decided to resign." Of course, the real story was a much more complicated affair, but that was a bridge to be crossed another time.

One housing unit in particular looked very different than the others. In contrast to the ones that appeared dilapidated and run down, this one seemed pristine in appearance, unaffected by whatever had happened to this place.

"What's with that one?" His companion spoke up, taking notice of the aforementioned house. One look at the housing number - 325 - told Nelius all he needed to know.

"That one... that's my folks' place back in the Netherworld I was born in."

"Your folks' place, eh? What're they like?"

Before he had a chance to answer, several creatures appeared out of nowhere and began running towards Nelius! Immediately his hands went up as he prepared his gauntlets to fight, but these creatures instead ran past him.

"Run! Run away!" One looked like a bipedal Dragon.

"It's coming..." This one had the shape of a Wood Golem.

"I don't wanna die again!" Ironically, this one was in the shape of a Galactic Demon.

"What's got them spooked?" His question would soon be answered in the form of an immense, draconic-esque foot slamming down near him, shaking the ground and kicking up a serious draft as it made a few houses crumble. Nelius was forced to shield his eyes with an arm, and as the dust settled, he quickly took a look upwards... "The hell-?!"

"_**Hello, Raoul. Remember me?**_" A gargantuan yellow eye peered down at him, soon accompanied by several rows of unusually sharp teeth that sat above the aforementioned eye. At that same time, he swore he could see a few other eyes coming into view.

"What the shit is that!" Raoul's companion nearly shrieked in alarm.

"_**Who, me?**_" More of the beast came into view, revealing itself to be very draconic in shape, with eight immense, almost insectoid-looking wings that honestly appeared to be far too thin to be able to lift it off the ground. It almost seemd to regard Nelius with a bit of a leer as it continued speaking. "_**Ah, that's right... you were rendered unconscious when I revealed my glorious form to the world.**_"

Nelius was already clicking his gauntlets into place. It had been months since the incident that birthed this thing... what was it planning?

"_**It would seem I overslept when that warp happened nearly a year ago. Time to claim what's mine!**_"

Nelius quickly flipped out of the way as the beast's immense tail came crashing down on his former position, chunks of earth jutting up as they were displaced. Impact aside, the end of the tail was decorated in spikes. Not wasting time, he withdrew his gun and fired at the beast. The bullets struck the beast very close to its eye, and in retaliation it launched a ball of wind at him from its mouth.

As Nelius got out of the way, the attack struck one of the outer walls, reducing it and whatever surrounding stonework to less than rubble.

"Fine then..." Letting his wings emerge, energy crackled off of them as he let loose several bolts at the beast. They found purchase at several parts of its body, exploding into spheres of darkness that threatened to tear at its skin and scales, which appeared to be an off-white color.

"_**Hm, not bad...**_" The beast settled back, giving Nelius a moment of pause. "_**But now I wonder how long you can keep this up.**_"

"Bring it. I'm just warming up." To that, the beast... chuckled?

"_**Hardly what I was getting at, boy. How long will you keep repressing it... keep denying it?**_"

"The hell are you on about?" Was this merely a ruse to distract him from the fight?

"_**Oh, you know very well what I mean... perhaps I should remind you.**_"With a glow of its eye, the very world shifted, showing a memory of a past time.

**A Past Time**

**Nelius Raoul: 17 years of age**

This forest looked to be the place where people had been disappearing. With his gauntlets secured, Nelius started into the place. He had grown another two inches since the battle, sitting him at a height of 5'9". His hair was starting to get pretty long, covering his demon-length ears and allowing him to blend in with the humans. The human world sun had only started on giving him a tanned appearance.

It had nearly been around nine months since his eye had been gouged out, but it wasn't all bad... that strange dark power had erupted forth, saving his life in that battle. He was looking forward to experimenting with it in the coming years, inbetween his attempts to get home.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the sound of something going "_squelch_" underfoot. Looking down...

"...oh shit." Looks like he found those missing humans. However, these humans looked... deflated, as if their skeletal and muscular systems had been forcibly extracted from their bodies. Yet at the same time, there were no wounds large enough to allow that to happen. Something else was rapidly becoming apparent... a stench that made his nose and stomach want to vacate the area immediately. Were they decaying already?

Looking for a trail, he found one off to the side, and so followed it... and about a minute later, some part of him wished he hadn't.

Several demons were hiding within the clearing, and they were simply unpleasant to look at, having the appearance of insects forcibly merged with draconic-looking creatures. One of them had a human in its grips, its teeth sunk clearly into the human's neck. The human in question was trying to escape, but their strength was fading fast, as they seemed to deflate...

'_What the absolute hell?!_' Soon the human was tossed aside, their remaining skin being the only proof of their existence. Much as he was left wondering what they did to literal drain a person's insides, this had to end.

As the first of the mutated-looking demons reached over to grab another human to consume, it soon found its arm severed off, roaring in pain and alerting the rest of its group to their interloper.

Nelius reformed his wing as he closed the distance, decking the first one he reached in its face...

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

"_**Ah, weren't those good times~**_"

"Mr. Nelius... what were those?" She'd known of the other monsters from the other world, but these were something else.

"Those were that world's version of an Incubus demon." Nelius kept his eyes on the immense beast as the memory continued to play, showing his younger self tear through them.

Younger Nelius quickly slid beneath the outstretched reach of another of those demons, and as he got to his feet he brought his axe up, catching the monster in its chest and tearing away a fair bit of its flesh and muscle.

"Get moving!" He yelled to the clearly terrified humans that were trying to comprehend what was going on. As they were rooted to the spot in abject horror, the offworld demon pulled a gun from his back holster, and fired it at another of the people eaters, the gunshot snapping the humans from their paralysis. "Go!"

"_**Indeed... and ever since that day, when you remembered what those machines called you... that was when the seed of doubt was planted... the seed that allowed me to arise.**_" At that, the voice of that Huitzil machine echoed forth...

"_Subject's classification: Incubus._"

"A seed of doubt that's been long since overcome." And like that the memory ended, shifting everyone back to the town surrounding the Overlord's Castle. "Just because I might share their blood doesn't mean I'll take their path."

"_**Ah yes, the classic demon response... but we both know this will only end one of two ways.**_"

Nelius wasn't in the mood to hear this thing prattle on, and so fired at the beast once more.

**Mountain Glenn Subterranian Tunnels, 11:15 A.M.**

It was with a groan that Ruby Rose found herself coming back to some level of consciousness. Almost immediately she began to look around for her team, seeing them nowhere near her.

During the Mountain Glenn investigation, they had found the old Merlot Industries building, still surprisingly intact after all these years, only to be set upon by close to fifty Beowolves and Creepers. When they had managed to clear them out, what should arise but an Ursa Major!

The giant bear-shaped Grimm was relentless, every slam of its forepaws causing waves of rubble to fly up from the ground. Shouldn't have been any sort of surprise that one of the Grimm's attacks would've destabilized the nearby tunnels, causing them to collapse in mere seconds after they had managed to finally slay the beast.

"Students, report in!" Normally she'd never imagine to be so relieved to hear the voice of Dr. Oobleck, but considering their location and what awaited them, she'd take it. Sure, it was over her Scroll, but given that the signal had been displaying as weak during the initial foray into the abandoned settlement just days prior, this was a silver lining she wasn't complaining about. Maybe the hole the Ursa Major had made created an open window for the CCT signal?

"Uhh, I'm OK, but I think we got seperated." She looked around these underground buildings... hard to believe that just years ago, people had actually tried to live down here. Little sunlight, a near-constant risk of having the ceiling come down on you... she pushed those thoughts away, lest she end up bringing in more Grimm to say hello.

"Well, that's an issue. I'll see if I can lock onto the others' Scrolls and guide you all to each other." As Oobleck went silent to try and locate the rest of her team, Ruby found herself at a crossroads. Go straight towards finding her team, or search around for anything that might've left behind? The White Fang had been using this place as a base of operations when they dropped in, so maybe in their rush to leave they had left supplies by accident?

It was worth a look, at any rate. Personal weapon in-hand, she took the latter option - if there were still Grimm down here, it'd pay to have something to work with.

**Beacon Academy Dorms, 11:20 A.M.**

Cinder had her Scroll open as she checked on the progress of the virus she had uploaded during the dance. As expected, it had almost finished propegating throughout Vale's entire CCT tower.

'_Perfect._' With this, any and all information that Ozpin had at his disposal was now at her fingertips. Add in the bonus of being able to tap into any Scrolls or other computer systems that directly interfaced with the tower, and there was no telling what she could dig up. Given that Atlas' Headmaster was put in charge of security detail for the upcoming Vytal Festival, his Scroll likely held the schematics and control for those silly security droids... perfect fodder for the upcoming plan.

Still, she couldn't help but overhear something about a Merlot Industries investigation... relegating that to a secondary concern, she'd act on checking it out if something worthwhile came of it. For now, it was time to begin collecting info on what teams would be taking part in this festival.

With Torchwick locked up, his subordinate, Neopolitan, had disguised herself as the fourth member of her team. A quick cover story of her being a late arrival due to a small family issue was all it took for Ozpin to take the bait. His overly trusting nature was all too easy to exploit.

Now that her mind was on Torchwick, she couldn't help but dwell upon that unusually tall character that managed to subdue him, if the reports were correct. Might as well do some digging, and see if there was anything worth using for her cause. If not, then he could be safely ignored.

**Ozpin's Office, 11:22 A.M.**

Ozpin mentally reviewed what details he had gotten from the interrogation with Nelius Raoul. He was firmly convinced now that Cinder had to have been working for a certain someone else, and that Torchwick was but a means to an end.

Now came the question of how to oust Cinder and her subordinates without tipping his hand too early, or having it trace back to him. A fair point had been made during the questioning: if Cinder caught wind that Ozpin was onto her, she'd easily ditch her current location and find somewhere else to set up camp.

Perhaps their "offworld" associates could lend some ideas? He'd solicit them for some advice once this business with Merlot Industries was finished up...

'_There's a name I never thought I'd hear again._'

Right now, Port and Oobleck were assisting Team RWBY in investigating the sudden reappearance of that man's technology. If it turned out that Merlot was indeed attempting to make a return after the part he played in causing Mountain Glenn's collapse...

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart, 11:25 A.M.**

"_**...you are indeed tenacious.**_" The beast growled as it took another swipe at Nelius. One of its claws raked dangerously close to the ground as the air dispersed around it, causing more of the "city" to come crumbling down.

Nelius, however, had extended his wings and went skyward, firing a blast of energy at the beast's eye once more. The beast blinked, its eyelid proving strong enough to weather the blast... however, this was what Nelius had counted on, and so dove towards the creature.

At once, the beast's other eyes focused on him, and began to fire off beams, forcing the offworld demon to adjust accordingly. The beast's head suddenly lurched forward, intent on devouring the demon whole!

"Not today!" Nelius quickly altered his descent further, the monster's jaws snapping just above him... and the second his true target was revealed, he put both hands forward and fired off a blast of magic.

What was his target, might you ask? Why, it was the indentation slightly below the monster's collarbone...

The beast gave a horrified roar of pain as the magic shot hit its mark, detonating dangerously close to what would've been the beast's lungs, if not close to its heart.

"_**BASTARD!**_" It bellowed at him, smoke pouring from its mouth and nostrils due to that attack.

"Hey! My folks were legally married... well, as legally as the Netherworld allows."

"_**ENOUGH!**_" It launched another wind ball at Nelius, but the demon quickly sidestepped the blast, which gouged out another crater within the area. "_**Why do you persist in denying what you are?**_"

"Seems my words were missed the first time." Nelius stared the monstrosity down. "Sure, I might be an Incubus due to my mother's side of the family, but that in no way means I'll go down the path of those creatures."

"_**You seem awfully certain of yourself...**_"

"I've come this far, haven't I? 'Sides, if I really am responsible for your creation, only stands to reason that I put this issue to bed."

"_**Hm... we'll see...**_" At once, the beast's form began to disappear, as did the world around them. "_**We'll see indeed how long that determination of yours holds up.**_"

**The Base, 11:32 A.M.**

Nelius landed back into the base, the portal flickering away behind him. His companion was unusually silent as she tried processing what she just witnessed.

"...did you really make that thing?" She finally spoke after a while.

"It's possible that whatever weirdness I got hit with prior to landing here birthed him." He shut the Dual Diver down, and went over to check his Scroll. "But it only means I need to put it to rest."

[One New Message]

Received at: 10:23 A.M.

"Huh."

Might as well open this up and see what's going on. It'd at least give him something else to occupy his mind.

Sender: James Ironwood

Topic: Promised Meeting

In light of the information you provided on Amber's assailants and the recent crimes committed by Torchwick, Ozpin and I have made the decision to have a meeting with our other allies in the coming days. We would like to formally request your presence to aid in the discussion.

"Other allies, huh? Who else do they have on their payroll?" His companion piped up.

"Guess the only way to find out is to drop in." To that, Nelius typed out a response.

Sender: Nelius Raoul

Re: Topic: Promised Meeting

Understood. Send me a reply when a date for this meeting has been finalized. We'll be there.

He hit send, giving the General his response.

**Forever Fall, 12:02 P.M.**

Weiss Schnee was more than happy to finally be out of the Mountain Glenn tunnels.

When Blake Belladonna, one of her teammates and an ex-White Fang member, had returned with solid information that the Fang was using Mountain Glenn as a staging ground for their next act, it had been her team leader, Ruby, that had come up with the idea of going there to stymie the Fang's operations.

Never would she have imagined their operation would end in a furious battle inside the train as the Fang launched a still-operational engine car towards the heart of Vale. Granted, they had struck quickly enough to disable the majority of the Fang's forces, but they didn't know what else the train had in store.

As her mind went back to that day, she remembered all too well of that large Faunus with the chainsaw.

"_Finally, I get to kill a Schnee..._"

She had known of many that both worshipped and cursed her family name, and certainly this was far from the first time someone had tried to use her name as a reason to attack her, yet their anger towards her family name was more than misplaced.

Ever since her father had married into the name, the Schnee Dust Company had become more and more questionable in its methods when he took over from her grandfather, methods the White Fang was more than happy to use as justification to attack her family and herself. More than ever, she needed to prove herself able to take on the company by herself, just as her grandfather had done-

"Weiss!" The voice of one of her teammates, Yang, brought her from her thoughts, just in time for the heiress to quickly use the Ice Dust within Myrtenaster to freeze a strange, green Beowolf in place... a fortunate timing, as its claws were inches away from finding purchase in her throat. She quickly took the time to get out of the way.

Come to think of it, back in Mountain Glenn's tunnels, they had seen several large Creeps with that same glow. Dr. Oobleck theorized it to be some kind of mutation, but it felt like far more than something so simple, especially when those same Creeps didn't dissolve away upon death, but detonated!

The green Beowolf broke free of the ice, and was immediately on the attack once more. Yang quickly got its attention with a few shots from her gauntlets, giving Weiss a bit more breathing room to create a Time Dilation Glyph to slow it down.

Ruby took the opportunity to line up a shot, and took it, catching the Beowolf in the side of its head.

**Far Away, on another Continent...**

As the report of strange Fang activity in Vale reached this person's ears, needless to say they found themselves a mix of livid and curious. A train flying up and through the city square, itself manned by many of her people...

'_What else isn't Taurus telling me?_' Positing this question was a Faunus woman with noticably dark skin and stripes running down her arms and legs, giving her the appearance of a tiger. The orange-trimmed ears atop her head and golden-orange eyes added to that. She was clad in an open-back black dress beneath a gold-accented open-back red cape.

Sienna Khan had her suspicions about this act. Taurus had claimed it was a radical sect, but she wasn't buying any of it for a minute - why else would Callan be there, having been one of the key Faunus in spearheading whatever operations were being handled in Vale?

'_I'm going to need someone I can trust to get the truth of this... maybe..._' Withdrawing her Scroll from the pouch on her right hip, she opened it up and contacted a certain number.

"High Leader?" A female's voice came through on the other end after about ten seconds.

"Ilia, if you're available, I've a task for you."

"O-of course! I'll be on my way immediately." The call ended, Sienna began to put together her plan.

Chapter 11- Complete


	12. Chapter 12

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 12: Players Converge

Ozpin found himself less than happy.

During Team RWBY's investigation into Forever Fall, they had reported finding more cages belonging to Merlot Industries hidden throughout the old ruins, and if that wasn't enough, an active freighter ship bearing Merlot's personal emblem was found there. More and more it was sounding like Merlot was indeed alive, or at least one of his personnel was making use of his equipment. Considering the role that man played in Mountain Glenn's collapse, Remnant was better off without him fouling up its presence.

Unfortunately, Oobleck had lost contact with them when they went to investigate the ship further, communications abruptly ceasing as they appeared to have been taken into a dead zone.

"Oobleck, the moment that communications are restored, patch me in immediately." Ozpin wasn't one to let his tempers run wild, but Merlot had already done more than enough damage back then.

Several floors down, Cinder continued listening in on Team RWBY's investigation into this Merlot Industries. The notion of Mutant Grimm caught her interest - Grimm weren't known to undergo such radical transformations, to the point that they surpassed their Alpha variants. These mutants had to be manufactured in some way... and the more that Team RWBY managed to uncover about these, the more she could report on.

She knew that the man that had created her virus would be rather fascinated by this information, and if she played her cards right it would get that irritant out of the way of her plans. Might as well take this opportunity to catalog this information and get some good graces back.

**Vale-Mistral Passenger Airship**

**Friday, September 16, 3:33 P.M.**

The Commercial Airship moving between Mistral and Vale was packed, many of its passengers excitedly chatting about the upcoming Vytal Festival, and their hopes of whom they would get to see compete. With them due to land in Vale in the next six minutes, their excitement was palpable.

One passenger, however, was focusing a bit more on something they had been asked to look into.

This passenger in particular was a somewhat short female, with fair skin slightly mottled with slightly darker spots here and there across what skin was showing through her rather modest outfit. Brown hair was tied back into a curled ponytail, and gray eyes regarded the other passengers with an air of disdain as she tried to ignore the cacophony.

She thought back on her assigned mission...

**White Fang Headquarters**

**Friday, September 16, Unknown Mistrali Time**

"High Leader?" She stepped into the main hall, where Sienna Khan was indeed seated upon her chair. "You had an assignment for me?"

"Indeed, Ilia." Ilia found herself a little nervous - that look on Sienna's face more than indicated something serious was going on. "Some curious activity in Vale recently reached me... many of our people were found committing a rather senseless act, including a familiar face."

The young Faunus took a look at the provided information, and immediately one of the provided images showed a familiar person. "Callan? Why is he there?" He was known to almost always be at Adam's side.

"That is what I want you to figure out. As much as I have no love for Vale or its governing people.." The latter term was said with a kind of revulsion that made Ilia inwardly flinch, "..the kingdom's citizens are, at the very least, making strides to see Faunus in far better lights than Atlas or Mistral. So for this to happen there raises more than a few alarms."

Ilia looked back through the provided images of the White Fang members that had been arrested, but a different image in particular stood out to her... it was a shot of Team RWBY, a first-year team at Beacon Academy whom, alongside Beacon Professor Bartholomew Oobleck, had worked to defuse the attempted breach before it could've gotten much worse. Testimony from the quintet had told of the Fang using Mountain Glenn as an attempted base of operations, and of how they had launched a still-functional train car towards Vale when confronted. A number of Dust-powered explosive devices had been found armed on the cars, though it was through some quick-thinking that they had been disabled before they could've been used.

One person in particular among that group had caught her attention, and immediately Ilia recognized them. If that person was indeed in Vale, then this mission just became twice - no, three times as important.

"When shall I depart?" Ilia spoke up.

**Vale-Mistral Passenger Airship Landing**

**Friday, September 16, 3:38 P.M.**

"Attention passengers..." The intercom had cut on, breaking the young Faunus from her thoughts."We're about to make our descend into Vale's airport. Please make certain all belongings are securely on-hand before departing."

Ilia double-checked to make certain everything she needed was with her, and soon she blended into the departing crowd. Once she was far away enough from the humans, she took off to find a suitable spot to act as a base during her investigation. Once that was squared away, she'd immediately begin finding out what the White Fang was up to out here... and if it was in the cards, perhaps try to see what her other target had been up to out this way?

As she made her way towards the Residential District to secure a place to stay at for at least a few weeks, she passed by a rather tall individual whom was exiting one of the shops.

'_Hey, I had a thought._' Epsilon communicated to Nelius through their thought-link. '_If your gauntlets had the Notorious taking the forms of demons and such from back home, would weaponry and armor here in Remnant have Grimm in their place?_'

'_It's possible. Only real way to know is to get one of this world's Hunters who'd be willing to participate._'

'_But that also brings its own risks, like someone deciding to ask a few too many questions, or them trying to steal the Dual Diver._'

'_...might be a good idea to create an access code for the machine, then. That, and maybe think on making a personalized version._'

'_Yeah, but still, we're gonna need an expanded test subject range once we get the final few kinks worked out._'

As the pair headed back towards their base to continue fine-tuning the Dual Diver, an idea was forming in Nelius's head as to whom could be in that test pool, but before that could happen, there was the issue of ensuring that this remained secret.

'_...I might have an idea as to how we can pull this off, but there's something I want to check first._'

**Meanwhile**

**Several Universes Away**

Well above the universe of humanity, sat a world that appeared to float on or well above the clouds. This world looked to be made of several floating landmasses, each covered in gentle green topiary and structures made of flawless marble. Within the green grass grew pure white flowers.

This realm is Celestia, the world of the Angels.

On one of these landmasses, what appeared to be a young boy of five years old with short, violet-colored hair was taking a moment to appreciate the rather warm breeze blowing throughout this section of the realm he called home. Small, feathered wings spread from his back as he took this moment to stretch-

\- but that was soon interrupted as a strange, almost gut-wrenching feeling nearly overtook him. He nearly stumbled forward, but quickly regained his footing as cautious brown eyes quickly darted about, looking for even a slight hint of what caused that emotion to flare up. For a moment, he saw nothing, but then he noticed something out of the corner of his eye...

There! Something was rustling over in that Yuie bush. He slowly made his way over to investigate, silently wishing that his older sister was here to help him...

"A soul?" Indeed, quivering within this bush was what appeared to be a soul, but it looked so... fragile, as if it were barely being held together with its own willpower. He could go and get one of the other angels, but in that time this soul might end up fracturing...

With little other option, he carefully scooped the soul into his hands, and quickly took off for the main area of Celestia. If he could find one of the older angels, then they could help him save this soul.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**September 16, 4:02 P.M.**

"What the-"

In stark contrast to how everything looked before, his Netherheart had gained some color, the trees and grass looking a touch healthier than before, and even some of the damage inflicted to the surrounding areas during his earlier bout had been undone. Even the sky above looked far less forboding.

"Strange... did your victory over that thing restore a bit to this place?" Epsilon spoke up, taking holographic form to look around some more.

"Looks like it, but that thing did imply it'd return. Now's a good a time as any to take another look around."

Around the central area of his Netherheart, he took notice of a few new residents. He spotted another Healer close to one of the RosenQueen fascimiles, though close by was a violet-haired woman in armor, with a somewhat serious look on her face.

This woman was known as an Armor Knight, one of the female graduates of the Knight Academy, making use of their powerful armor to shield their allies in battle. Her function in this place, however, was to allow Nelius to take a closer look at his abilities, to learn new skills and empower his existing ones. Something else she taught was how to set up passive abilities to bring into combat... these passive skills, "Evilities", allowed for a wealth of options in battle.

Given that the Netherworld Assembly wasn't available to submit any requests, the Skill Shop owner would have to suffice in learning the Evilities that usually belonged to other demons.

'_Well, since the Usatako's not going to be of much use against Grimm..._' He headed over to speak with her.

As he was checking out the central area of this fascimile of his home Netherworld, Epsilon had decided to float over towards the house numbered 325. Curiosity getting the better of her, she touched the front door's knob... and immediately an old memory surfaced.

**An Old Memory**

**Seven Months prior to Apprenticeship**

KA-BOOM!

A young Nelius, around 9 years old and standing roughly 4'5", nearly toppled over as he launched a Fire spell that impacted several wild Ghosts, obliterating the spirits. Short brown hair did little to cover his pointed demon ears.

"Whoa-ho! Nicely done." Accompanying him was a green-haired man, standing roughly 5'10" tall. Sharp yellow-tinted eyes regarded the younger demon with a level of mirth to them.

"...I don't think Fire spells are supposed to explode like that." Nelius responded in turn.

"In fairness, son, Ghosts are mostly held together by their jackets, so you torching them did cause their corporeal form to rapidly dissipate. Add in the heat and pressure from the spell, and..."

"...wait. Aren't Ghosts said to be the souls of those that failed to become Prinnies?"

"Got it in one. That said, next time, try a Wind spell."

Nelius nodded.

"Now then..." The green-haired man tossed Nelius a set of sparring gloves. "Once your mother gets here, we're going to go wrestle some Dragons."

"Sweet!"

"Hope I'm not too late." A brown-haired demon woman floated on into the clearing about a minute later, letting her wings rest behind herself. She stood roughly 5'4" tall, with crimson eyes locking onto the two. Judging from her overall body tone, she wasn't afraid to get into any physical altercation.

"I'd say you're just in time. Let's get to it."

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**4:07 P.M.**

Epsilon blinked.

"Well, you did wonder what my folks were like." The sudden voice of Nelius snapped her from her thoughts.

"Those were your parents?" She looked to be in complete disbelief.

"Indeed they are." He then took a moment to look the Desco-unit square in the eyes. "And next time, do ask before you go touching things. You might end up seeing something you can't un-see."

"...right. Sorry..." At the very least, she did look rather sheepish. "Anyway, what all did you find out?"

"Seems that driving off big and ugly caused a few helpful residents to return. We have a Healer and a Skill Shop in here. Guessing there's more to explore if we want to get a RosenQueen Clerk... that or we use the Item Diver for that."

"Gotcha. Anything interesting in the Skill Shop?"

"Figured that since the Usatako's main function isn't able to be of much use against those Grimm, I wanted to see if we could reconfigure it for more general use."

"Hmmm... in that case..."

As the two began to discuss their options on their way back towards the central area, neither took notice of one of the residents watching them.

**Mountain Glenn**

**5:34 P.M.**

With a simple leap, Ilia made her way over the fence blocking off access towards the ruined expansion project. To think, the Grimm had assaulted this place relentlessly and destroyed it all...

She put that thought out of her mind. One of the still-standing structures had to have a staircase or some other method to get to the subterranean levels. Of course, there was also the possibility of running into Grimm out this far, so she couldn't afford any recklessness.

Personal weapon drawn, she began her search through the ruined buildings of Mountain Glenn. Hopefully the Fang branch acting here had left behind some clues as to their actions.

**Unknown Island**

**6:20 P.M.**

"Where are we?" Blake Belladonna, one of Team RWBY's members, tried to make use of her scroll to get a better idea of where the ship had managed to bring them, but the signal was intensely weak. Oobleck's voice was barely coming through.

"Hey, I see some towers over there." Ruby pointed to several signal towers further ahead. "Maybe we can use those to boost the signal." With few other options to pursue, the quartet began heading up the beach.

Unfortunately for the fledgling team, they had opposition waiting for them in the form of several robots. These red and black machines adorned with Merlot's personal symbol had polearms with a blade on each end.

As the team prepared to scrap these machines, Weiss couldn't help but wonder how this Merlot, or any one of his survivng staff, was able to get ahold of this kind of technology. Did he steal some of it from Atlas a long time ago? She had more questions along those lines, but decided they could wait for after the investigation was complete.

The Merlot Bots swiftly proved relentless foes, their weapons seemingly having reach that belied their appearance combined with the ability to quickly press the offense forced Team RWBY to take up more defensive stances... but as Blake soon proved through a careful use of her Semblance, the machines were ultimately basic in their logical routines.

As one of the machines tried to gut the Cat Faunus open, its blade seemingly found purchase in her chest... only for it to reveal itself as a doppelganger, one that was made of Earth Dust. The robot tried its damnest to pull the weapon free, but the Dust clone detonated first, chunks of earth managing to pierce structurally weak points on the machine. While it was distracted, Ruby Rose quickly dashed in and brought her scythe's blade down on its arms, severing them at the elbows. With no manner in which to defend itself, it tried to search for an acceptable subroutine to follow, but its search was soon cut off in the same instant its neck was severed.

Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster, her Multi-Action Dust Rapier, into the ground as the other machine closed the distance, intent on slashing her. This proved a mistake for the robot, as Ice Dust quickly froze the ground around the machine's feet, rooting it to the ground. Yang took this opportunity to deliver a punch to its midsection, one that had been charged up thanks to her Semblance. This proved too much for the machine's chassis to handle, and it crumpled under the strength of the blow, its internal systems shutting down a few seconds after.

With the robots defeated, Team RWBY turned their attention back towards finding a path towards the radio tower, to contact Oobleck and maybe get a better idea of where this island was located. Weiss made use of her Scroll to snap some images of these robots... no doubt General Ironwood would be interested in investigating these machines once Merlot was taken care of.

Little did the team yet realize their performance against the robots was being monitored...

**The Infinite Depths of the Item Dimension**

**Croixshot, Floor 85, 6:31 P.M.**

Now armed with the change in the Usatako's functions, Nelius had headed into the Item World belonging to his gun to test out his new configuration alongside getting some training in.

As he faced off with a Notorious taking the form of a Netherworld Warrior, Epsilon was busy running numbers on the permutations regarding this new setup.

Since the Grimm had no life force that the Usatako could make use of, the new strategy was as such: Nelius had chosen to first learn from the Horseman Units, demons that rode Skeletal Dragons into battle. A skill they were known for allowed their attacks to increase in intensity the more foes they felled, which created a loop that got stronger and stronger as the battle wore on.

Once he had learned that skill, he was going to return to the Skill Shop and learn from the Dark Knights, demons clad in dark armor and holding a crimson jewel in the center of their body armor. A skill they held made them gain greater offensive and defensive strength whenever attacking or being attacked.

Of course, there were others that he could consider: The Mage Knight's ability to turn their elemental preferences into extra power, the Twin-Headed Dragon's ability to strike twice with one blow, the Warrior's skill to turn an outnumbered situation into an advantage for themselves...

One might look at this sort of preparation and consider him going overboard, and in any other situation they might have had a point. But Nelius had learned over his countless years of inter-reality tripping that things could change at the drop of a hat. While he had configured the transmitter to find Mita's ship, in theory anyone could've tapped into the transmission, and it'd be on his head if he brought trouble.

'_Guess my old man's rubbed off on me more than I thought..._' Either way, he was here to do a job, and do it he shall.

**Unknown Island **

**7:03 P.M.**

There it was, the final tower. During Team RWBY's trip through the island, they had taken notice of the shipping yard that had a fair stockpile of resources they could use to arm themselves during the exploration. Of course, this also meant contending with a fair number of Grimm that decided to call the island their home... but what made this situation even stranger was that the androids weren't even considered targets by the Grimm.

Normally the Grimm hated anything manmade, if their constant attempts to disable the CCT relay towers were any indication, so to see them actively willing to fight alongside Merlot's machines made for one hell of a mental exercise.

Either way, the last tower was ahead, so it was time to disable the last device hampering their reception and finally get back in touch with Beacon. As Ruby removed the device, the team kept an eye on their Scrolls, waiting to hear Oobleck get through.

"Ahh, that's much better." That wasn't Oobleck. "I do apologize, but reception has always been so spotty out this way. Still, I do hope you've been enjoying your stay here so far. You're the first visitors I've had in... well, ever, actually."

"...did we get a wrong number?" Yang wondered aloud.

"Seems I'm forgetting my manners. Allow me to introduce myself - I'm Dr. Merlot."

"Wait a moment..." Weiss spoke up next. "According to all known records, you died when Mountain Glenn collapsed all those years ago."

"As you can plainly see, or hear in this case, some records tend to be a little inaccurate. Regardless, I'm actually quite thrilled to have you here. Promising Beacon students such as yourselves may be just what I need for a highly important experiment."

**Beacon Academy **

**7:06 P.M.**

Oobleck nearly jumped out of his skin as the voice of Dr. Merlot eminated from his link to Team RWBY's Scrolls. After taking a second to compose himself, he quickly sent a message over to Ozpin, one that consisted of only three words.

[Merlot is alive!]

Within seconds Ozpin was connected to the conversation... and unbeknownst to either of them, so was Cinder.

"So you're alive, Dr. Merlot." Ozpin was barely restraining a venomous tone as he addressed Merlot, something that Cinder found quite interesting.

"Ah, Ozpin. Or should I refer to you as Oz, like old times?"

"Everyone thought you perished in the Mountain Glenn disaster, something you played no small part in."

"A mere speedbump on the superhighway of scientific progress. You couldn't even begin to fathom the ramifications of my newest research."

"The world was a far safer place without you around."

Cinder was almost ecstatic - another foe of Ozpin? She continued recording what she could... this was getting good.

"Cinder, I-" Emerald didn't get a chance to inform her leader about her new discovery, as one of the older woman's hands went up, in that classic meaning of wanting silence.

**Merlot's Island**

**7:08 P.M.**

Sliding beneath a Beowolf's outstretched claws as she brought her scythe forward to sever the Grimm's legs, Ruby Rose found herself somewhere between alarmed and frightened at Ozpin's tone. Until now, she'd only really known of the calm, rational side of Beacon's Headmaster, so to hear him this angry... she made a silent resolve to never get on Ozpin's bad side.

Yang and Blake worked together to pin down another of Merlot's robots, Blake using her weapon to tie its legs together and force it to use its double-bladed pike to keep from falling over, and Yang using the opening to reduce the machine to scrap.

Weiss, in the meanwhile, was combining her Glyphs with some more Dust to freeze the ground further as a few Boarbatusks began to roll towards her. One swift dodge to the side courtesy of a Black Glyph and the warthog-Grimm found themselves robbed of a fair amount of their friction, forcing them to careen wildly and into a small group of Creeps, eliminating the bipedal Grimm before colliding with the natural rocks and cracking their own heads open, leaving them easy picking for the Schnee heiress.

"Calling me the dangerous one, Oz? Bit of pot and kettle here, considering you sent your students on this dangerous excursion." Merlot taunted back over the line.

"They're more than a match for your mindless automatons. Even now, what you're trying to accomplish is wrong."

"Trying to make Remnant a better place is wrong? Go ahead and say what you will - it won't change the fact that you're powerless to stop me."

"You'll screw this up somehow. You always have."

"Let's agree to disagree on that one. Much as I'd like to stick around and continue our banter, I've business to attend to. Farewell for now." With that, Merlot left the conversation.

"Team, we've been trying to locate Merlot's island, but we've yet to get a fix on its coordinates. I need you to continue exploring and report back with any evidence of his whereabouts."

As the team did a double check to ensure that the area was free of Grimm and robots, they took a moment to sit down and catch their breath before continuing on forward. This trip had confirmed that Merlot was not only alive, but might've been the reason Mountain Glenn collapsed.

The sun was beginning to approach the horizon, and there was still much of the island to explore.

'_Kinda wish JNPR was here to help us out._' Ruby thoughtly idly as they packed up what they had before getting ready to continue exploring.

**Mountain Glenn, Subterranean Tunnels**

**7.29 P.M.**

Ilia heaved a tired sigh as she stepped away from yet another empty crate. There were definitive signs that the Vale Branch had been down here, but so far no clues were coming up as to what their ultimate goal was.

Ever since their attempt to rob the Schnee Dust Shipment some months back, they had gone rather quiet... she knew that Adam was a rather tempermental member, but he wouldn't have ordered the branch to do something this drastic... would he?

The growling of another Grimm broke her train of thought, and as she drew her weapon to defend herself, she then noticed the sickly green glow this Creep had. Now that she got a look at it, it was much bigger than even the Alpha variants.

"What in the..." It didn't give her much opportunity to dwell upon this new finding, as it immediately went on the attack, attempting to bite her. Ilia quickly switched her weapon into its whip-like form, and backed away to allow her weapon its maximum range. This proved a wise idea, as after an electrically-charged strike to its face, the mutated Creep suddenly detonated, leaving behind a noxious green cloud in its aftermath.

'_What an odd kind of Grimm..._' Of course, there were questions beginning to arise, such as if it had others like it, but those could wait until she was finished with her search. If more did happen to crop up, she'd merely have to deal with them.

She headed down another tunnel, keeping a wary vigil for any spot that looked like the Fang could've used it to store supplies... or any place a wandering Grimm might call home.

A few of the old train cars were nearby, yet some of them looked to be in somewhat better condition than the others. It was worth a look, at any rate.

**The Base**

**7:35 P.M.**

Nelius stepped back into reality, and headed over to pick up Croixshot. As he had expected, the gun had a new gleam to it, as though the ravages of time had been reversed. He'd give it a test run later.

Gun now holstered, he headed over to his Scroll, opened up the notes detailing his runs through the Dual Diver's modes, and then headed to the aforementioned machine's control panel. He ran a quick diagnostic log, largely to search for any potential anomalies so they could be addressed.

"Overall, it's looking solid. Now, how do we make an access code for this?"

"First thing's first, we-" Whatever she was about to say died on her metaphorical lips as the Scroll suddenly chimed. "Hm?"

"A new message." Saving and minimizing the notes, he flipped over to Messages, and saw that James Ironwood had left a message. "It's from General Ironwood... think he got a date for the meeting?"

"Only way to know is to open it up."

With little left to lose, they went to open the message.

Sender: James Ironwood

Topic: Promised Meeting update

Greetings, Raoul and Epsilon. A date has been finalized for the first meeting with our other supporters. It will be held on the 23rd of this month at Beacon Academy.

"23rd... that's next Friday."

"...well, this is gonna get interesting. Last we heard, Cinder and her two followers are still there. Hope Ironwood or Ozpin have a secure spot for the meeting."

Continuing on, it pains me to put this upon your shoulders, but in light of the information you provided us, and the skills you've proven to have in the field, we've been considering asking you to act as an interim guardian for a person of interest. More details will be revealed at the meeting.

"Person of interest... you thinkin' who I think it is?"

"Probably. Considering Cinder tried something with that Grimm Bug last year, they don't want a repeat of what happened before."

"Still, while her two sycophants know of me, Cinder doesn't right now, and they have no idea you exist. We might be able to use that to our advantage."

**Beacon Academy**

**7:45 P.M.**

Cinder finished gathering her info for the night, the virus making it unbelievably easy to find what she wanted. Now, to find out more on whomever that mystery person was that managed to subdue Torchwick.

She brought up the file, and opened it on her Scroll.

Name: Nelius Raoul

Age: 33

Sex: Male

Race: Human

Height: 7' 0" (213 cm)

Weight: 198 lb. (89.81 kg)

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Orange (Lost left in battle)

Weaponry on file: Maximov (Axe), Croixshot (Gun), Shatterpact (Gauntlets)

Known Family: None

History: Nelius claims to descend from one of several smaller settlements that lay somewhere between Vale and Vacuo... unfortunately, as these settlements have either packed up or been waylayed by the Grimm, verifying these claims will prove difficult. While he has no recorded attendance to any of the Hunstman Academies, he has shown great prowess with his weaponry, though more testing may be in order to see the full extent of his skills.

Cinder scoffed. He must've merely been lucky to subdue Torchwick... no matter. He could be easily dealt with, unknown past or not. Another pawn would be useful, but she was already this far in, and a distraction such as this would only get in the way.

Closing the file down, she returned to listening for Team RWBY's report on that Merlot character, and if they found anything useful.

Chapter 12- Complete


	13. Chapter 13

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 13: Realization

Ilia made her way back towards her temporary abode in Vale's Residential District, grateful she had chosen to take a small back-alley so she wouldn't be potentially stopped by any local law enforcement. With the Vytal Festival soon to start next month, quite a few policemen were being supplemented by Atlas' Androids... something that left a foul taste in her mouth, but she had to let it go for the time being.

Once she had made it back, she swiftly locked the door and headed over to the kitchen table, dumping out the contents of her bag onto it: several components to multiple Dust-powered explosives. She was familiar with this particular kind of explosive, having used some of them a fair number of times herself. These breach charges were meant to blow through walls, but the more she began to examine them, pick them apart, the more it became apparent these ones were enhanced variants, perhaps powerful enough to blow holes through the ceiling of the Mountain Glenn tunnels... a ceiling that would be directly connected to the streets of Vale.

'_What were they planning?_' Speculating was all well and good, but she'd need to find an actual member to get any idea of what the Vale Branch was planning next. She could only hope that they were still in the general area.

Once she had made certain these wouldn't function any more, she packed up and prepared to check the nearby outskirts of Vale for any traces of Fang activity.

**Beacon Academy**

**9:55 P.M.**

Ozpin did not like hearing what Team RWBY had discovered.

During their foray onto Merlot's Island, they had come across a strange, blue-green substance that, according to one report, not only smelled awful but was likely highly toxic in nature. What made this discovery all the more alarming was that Merlot was harvesting the substance, and as they fought past more robots and Grimm to follow the pipeline...

'_It seems Merlot has been busy since Mountain Glenn..._' The thought of Merlot easily establishing a base out there left a foul taste in his mouth. Things only got worse as they ventured further into Merlot's base, fighting off more Grimm and robots... they found several tanks full of the prior substance, only now it was being refined into some kind of material, and the green glow it was giving off made it all too clear to him now.

This new material, this serum, was what caused the mutation of the Creeps and Beowolves that Team RWBY had reported about. If this were to get loose, and potentially injected into other species of Grimm...

He pushed that thought from his mind, knowing from personal experience how a prevailing thought could end up coming true. Team RWBY was currently searching through the lab to find whatever they could to transmit the island's coordinates back to him. Once he had those coordinates, he'd get an extraction team over there as soon as possible. Of course, he had given them free reign to destroy whatever they could to hinder Merlot's plans.

Several floors down, Cinder continued listening in. A serum that could enhance the Grimm... that was beyond useful. Once Team RWBY transmitted the coordinates, that would be her ticket towards regaining favor. She needed to wait a bit longer...

Elsewhere on Beacon's grounds, Mercury was taking a little time to walk around the grounds, mostly to look for anything that Cinder could use. The sight and sounds of many of the students having a good time internally pissed him off, but he had learned to keep that feeling down... he had to learn how to do so.

Regardless, once Cinder's plan got fully underway he could finally enjoy himself.

**Merlot's Island**

**10:15 P.M.**

With the destruction of several of the serum processing tanks, alongside the Grimm that were drawn to the substance, Team RWBY continued their tour / systematic dismantling of the Laboratory... which Merlot seemed all too confident he could easily replace. However, further in they found a gigantic bank of computers, their screens flashing with information of all kinds, largely pertaining to whatever else Merlot was working towards with his robotics.

One of them had to be open access... no dice. All of these computers had no access ports for their Scrolls.

"Hm?" Ruby had looked a little further ahead, and there was a lone terminal. Venturing closer, she gave it a quick look-over, and upon seeing there was an access port, she quickly waved her team over. "This one!"

"Perfect." Weiss took over, slotting her Scroll in to begin figuring out the coordinates of this Island, and to get the results copied over to Ozpin. "Upload in progress."

"Excellent!" Ozpin replied. "Proxy the signal over the Scroll to me."

Unfortunately, Merlot didn't like that too much, having realized his error in judgment.

"Did you just - oh no. Get them!" With that, a surge of more Grimm and Merlot Androids began to swarm in on the quartet. Several of the androids, a stark white in color, actively tried shooting the console, so as to terminate the proxy and render the information upload useless.

**Beacon Academy**

**10:20 P.M.**

As Team RWBY fought off the onslaught, Ozpin was busy at work grabbing all the information he could about Merlot's Laboratory - coordinates, robotic schematics, whatever was relevant to the situation at hand - but the most important information was about the most vulnerable areas of the lab. Merlot hadn't invested in any kind of electronic security, and Ozpin was going to use that to his advantage.

The Headmaster of Beacon soon hit pay dirt after a little more digging - the Manufacturing Wing was a few floors down, and looked to hold the machinery that was vital to the final processes of the serum. With that taken out, Merlot would be out of options.

As he directed Team RWBY to head to the Manufacturing Wing and totally destroy it, he sent a message to one of the Bullhead pilots, directing them to head to the provided coordinates and extract Team RWBY.

**The Base**

**10:35 P.M.**

Nelius reclined back on his cot, feeling personally satisfied with his work tonight. Much as he wanted to head out and test out the Usatako's new configuration, not to mention the new power of his equipment, it wasn't like the Grimm or the Dual Diver would be going anywhere anytime soon. A chance to double-check everything would also prove more beneficial.

Now that he put some more thought about it, there were other Grimm out there - he had heard about Goliaths, large Grimm that resembled a combination of elephants and mammoths. From what he remembered, even the younger ones often required a team or two to take down. Some were known to get as tall as twenty-story buildings. Either way, plans for later.

As he settled in as best he could to get some sleep, Epsilon had decided to connect with his Scroll and go surfing around Remnant's version of the internet. After the Scroll connected to the CCT, she began looking up various topics and such, even popping her virtual head into a few open forums to see what most everyone was thinking about.

Unsurprisingly, most of the chatter was about the Vytal Festival next month. While many of the comments were about who the various posters were excited to see debut in this year's tournament, other people were placing preemptive bets on who would come away victorious, and a number of people were expecting a "Pyrrha Nikos" to be the one to win, having won four Sanctum Tournament Circuits in a row in prior years. Having finished several of her fights with minimal to no damage at all had earned her the nickname of "The Invincible Girl". At the same time, others were deriding such a choice, expressing that they'd like to see someone able to actually challenge Pyrrha, if not dethrone her.

'_Chick must be pretty good, for being human and all. Probably has a good Semblance._' Now this sparked her curiosity, prompting her to search out any information she could find.

Needless to say, various videos of past Sanctum Tournaments were easily located with a quick search, and as she began viewing the first few videos, it slowly became apparent that the redhead had incredible fighting skill against her opponents. There were several close calls where it looked like Pyrrha should've been hit, but she managed to get away without even a scratch.

Yet at the same time, as she slowed down these close calls, and did a frame by frame analysis, something began to seem... off. What once appeared to be an incredible evasion now looked a touch more like either an intentional opening of her guard to bait her opponents, or that the opponent's weapons seemed unwilling to actually get close, like they were being repelled.

The latter theory began to look more and less incredulous, if such was even possible, thanks to a quarter-final match between Pyrrha and someone wielding a fully-wooden automatic crossbow. The crossbow-wielder had Pyrrha on the defensive for a fair bit of the match, but a shot from the redhead's weapon jammed the crossbow, and before it could get a chance to be fixed Pyrrha had gone on offense, quickly turning the tides.

'_If she did have a repulsion effect, it should've also affected the bolts..._' Another quick comparison began to uncover a critical part of the mystery - up until the crossbow-wielder, all of Pyrrha's opponents had been using metal weaponry. Did her Semblance only affect metal weaponry? If it was some level of magnetism / ferrokinesis, would non-ferrous metals be unaffected? Questions for later.

With that out of the way, Epsilon continued on with her net-searching, unaware of something lurking within the CCT.

**Merlot's Island Laboratory**

**10:55 P.M.**

With the very last of Merlot's processing equipment destroyed, Team RWBY was more than ready to finally call it a night. Sadly, Merlot had a few more androids and Grimm to call upon, so once more unto the breach...

What they hadn't counted on was Merlot's last surprise.

"A Mutated Deathstalker?!" Indeed, this Deathstalker had the same green glow as the mutant Beowolves and Creeps, which mostly showed in its eyes, stinger, fangs and parts of its pincers.

"Don't be shy, now!" Merlot taunted over the comms. "You could learn so much from this enhanced specimen."

And learn they did - the monster had more than just its claws and stinger to make use of. For a Grimm of its size it was frightfully fast, able to burrow underground and track one of the huntresses-in-training with minimal issue. Its most dangerous tactic was somehow launching spikes from its tail, a skill that even the older species couldn't do. These spikes began melting the ground wherever they hit.

To bring this abomination of science down, a plan was quickly formed. Blake and Yang, the speediest and hardiest members of the team respectively, would alternate tactics in drawing the monster's attention.

Blake had taken notice of how the Mutant Deathstalker had begun calling forth other Grimm on occasion, and Merlot was sending it backup via his Androids, so her tactic was to goad the beast into launching its spikes at her, whilst at the same time Yang was pushing the Grimm and Androids into the path of the spikes. End result? Melting Grimm and corroded metal and circuitry.

Weiss had made use of her Time Dilation Glyphs and her remaining cartridges of Ice Dust to keep the beast still as best she could. When the beast had gotten fed up with Yang raining punches down upon its carapace, it had decided to forsake its pincers and go with the stinger.

To its detriment, the stinger got stuck in the floor, and Ruby took the opportunity to strike at where the stinger itself met the tail, remember the tale Nora had told them of how JNPR had handled the Deathstalker during initiation.

As the stinger was wrenched free from the floor, Ruby noticed a bit of green fluid leaking from the stinger's base, indicating that her gambit had paid off. This, however, agitated the monster even further, resulting in its movement and attacks becoming increasingly erratic. It had begun to rely on the toxic spikes much more, which made striking the tail an uphill task. Blake only narrowly avoided being nicked by one of the raining spikes, and even Yang feared that her Semblance wouldn't be able to take many hits from those spikes.

Though its strength had been boosted by Merlot's serum, its mind was beginning to deteriorate as Team RWBY was slowly, but steadily gaining ground. Ruby had taken a risk, and made the beast swing its pincers at her, inadvertently cleaving several more Androids and Grimm into bits, which helped take some pressure off Blake's evasion tactics. This, in turn, gave Weiss the opening she needed to freeze the ground beneath the Deathstalker's legs, causing it to trip up.

Merlot, too, was growing increasingly agitated at how these four schoolchildren were managing to take on his prized specimen, and not get immediately killed.

'_It should've eaten them alive by now!_' Faced with the prospect of actually losing, he needed his own plan, one that definitely included escaping.

The Deathstalker impacted the icy ground, unable to regain its footing. This was all the impetus Ruby needed to sever the stinger from the tail. It screamed with a sound unlike any of its brethren, and as it flailed about, trying to get back up, Weiss used her Glyphs to speed up Yang, and the blonde brawler aimed a wicked haymaker right between the Grimm's eyes. The sound of bone splintering filled the air, and with one final shudder the mutant Grimm flopped to the ground, dissolving away.

"No! My one of a kind specimen!" Merlot was beside himself in a mixture of rage and grief. It had taken him two dozen Androids to capture that Deathstalker alive, and another six to properly inject the serum... and now these four had killed it?!

"It's over for you, Merlot. You've nothing left." Ozpin's voice came in over their Scrolls.

"That's where I would disagree. There is one thing left - ending it with a BANG!" With that, the Grimm-obsessed doctor entered in one final code, and alarms began blaring.

"Team, Merlot's going to detonate his laboratory. Find an exit, immediately!" Team RWBY didn't need any further prodding - there was one exit out of the makeshift arena, albeit blocked with some debris from the battle. They furiously worked to clear it away, and as they discovered what looked like a hangar for aerial craft, the Beacon Bullhead pulled in.

The instant they were aboard, the Bullhead turned and flew away from Merlot's Island, and not five seconds past the Bullhead reaching a minimal safe distance the entire facility was engulfed in explosions.

Merlot's plans crumbled away with his laboratory.

The ride back to Beacon was a quiet one, but nothing needed saying anyway. The team was dead tired, and through Ozpin promised to meet with them as soon as they landed, sleep was calling to them all... well, a nice, hot shower and then some sleep, in that order.

**The Base**

**Saturday, September 17, 8:43 A.M.**

Nelius awoke from his slumber, and after doing some stretching to get his muscles warmed up for the coming day, reached over to grab his Scroll. Opening up the browser, he flipped over to the request boards. It looked like they hadn't been updated yet, so that left his schedule open for a while.

He could go out and get some food, tune up the Dual Diver, or go test out his equipment and the new Usatako configuration against those Goliath Grimm.

Right as he was about to collapse his Scroll, a new message popped up.

"Hm?" Flipping over to the Mail tab, he brought up the message. It looked to have been sent about... two minutes ago?

Sender: Unknown  
Topic: Immediate Discussion Required

I hope this message reached you easily, Nelius Raoul. I've been noting your progress within your own heart - which is why I wish to speak with you.

Enter your heart. I will be found near the center.

"...how in the hell?"

"...this is getting weird." Even Epsilon sounded a little wary of this. "You think it's legit?"

"Only one way to know." Closing his Scroll down, he headed over to the Dual Diver, and got the Soul Diver up and running once he replaced the Dust Crystal. Upon formation of the gate, he walked in.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**8:49 A.M.**

Upon arrival in his Netherheart, Nelius took a quick look around.

The facsimile of the castle town he grew up in was looking much cleaner than last time, though there were still some signs of battle damage here and there.

'_Now where's that being we were supposed to meet?_' He headed for the center of the town, eye shifting back and forth for whomever sent that message. For a few minutes, he peered down some alleys and between residences, hoping that he could find this character ahead of time and get to the reason for the message.

'_Maybe it was a hoax?_' Epsilon piped up.

'_Couldn't have been... nobody else knows that the Dual Diver was completed, much less that we've been smoothing out any wrinkles in the system._'

Something dropped down in front of him, prompting the off-world demon to immediately draw his axe in preparation of an ambush.

"_**Greetings.**_" Standing there...

"Wait a tic... my Belderiver transformation?" Indeed, before Nelius was something that resembled the humanoid mass of shadows that he first transformed into in a bid to defy death at the hands of a cosmic being long ago.

"_**That is correct.**_" A glowing orange eye met his.

"...I'd ask how you managed to contact my Scroll, but I have the feeling that explanation would take all day." Nelius put away Maximov. "Anyway, why did you call for me?"

"_**The reasons are many fold. First, do you remember the odd dreams you had, speaking of a merger?**_"

"...something about how each time I transformed into you, I'd be made more closely merged?" At Belderiver's nod, he continued. "Truth be told, for a while I thought I was just going nuts... I mean, hearing another voice inside my head, especially one that responded back-"

"_**That was no fever dream, nor was it madness. How do I put this... when you undid your former employer's seal...**_" At the mention of the Overlord he once served, Nelius's mood soured. "_**I was supposed to slowly bleed into you, to allow you to regain that which they attempted to steal away... but the battle against that cosmic being forced my awakening.**_"

Nelius thought back on that day... of how it helped him defy death, but he felt like the literal weight of the cosmos was upon him afterwards. Ever since that time, he had tried to hold the transformation and attune himself to it, and to his credit he was able to hold it longer and longer each time.

"Is that why I always got so winded back then, 'cause I never got used to having that kind of power?" Belderiver nodded once more.

"_**Indeed.. that seal was a vile thing, meant to keep everyone from being able to strike back. Though, your repeated transformations and longevity training allowed me to bleed in even more effectively than I would have on my own.**_"

"So what'll happen to you, if you're supposed to be a part of me?" At that question, another one arose in his mind - if this was happening to him, what of the other vassals he worked alongside? Did any of 'em get wise to what was going on and decide to leave as well? It had been decades since that day...

"_**In time, I will fade away... and as I fade, you will regain your full strength, perhaps even moreso. But before that can happen, there is the second thing to consider.**_"

"That being?"

"_**Of course, it relates to that beast that now resides within you.**_"

"Figures. Big and ugly hasn't shown back up since our previous encounter, has it?"

"_**Not yet... it seems to have retreated elsewhere within the recesses of your soul...likely biding its time for another attempt at usurption.**_"

"Well, that'll make dealing with it much less of a headache, if it's gone quiet for the time being. Gives us time to properly formulate a plan."

"_**Whatever it's made of, you need to make certain that you dominate it utterly, and give it no quarter with which with to rebel.**_"

"I know... I still remember those words from the other world." Nelius tightened his gauntlets. "Regardless, anything else I need to know?"

Belderiver nodded. "_**Something in this world... I don't know what it is precisely, but it feels as though something is missing, lost to time...**_"

"Hm... should you get a more concrete idea of what that is, feel free to call."

Belderiver nodded once more, and then faded from sight.

"Something missing, huh?" Epsilon spoke up after a moment. "What do you think it is?"

"Dunno - even after a year of being stuck here, I'm still finding things out about this world. Whatever that something is, I imagine we'll find it soon enough."

With that, Nelius turned to exit his Netherheart. Since he was wide awake now, might as well go get some food.

**Beacon Academy**

**9:21 A.M.**

With one final message, Cinder sent the information she had stolen back to her allies. This should go a long ways towards restoring what good faith she had left.

Her mood soured as she thought back to that shadowed-thing stopping her from taking the Fall Maiden's powers, but she knew that she'd have another shot. It had been confirmed that the Fall Maiden had sought asylum in Atlas, and once her plans for Vale were accomplished, it'd be increasingly likely that Ironwood would isolate Atlas, both to protect the kingdom and the Fall Maiden...

'_But even the safest cages have a blind spot._' Once she was isolated there, it'd be child's play to sneak in, obtain the powers, and then begin working from within. Peace made people sloppy, after all, and the most technologically advanced Kingdom was no exception to this.

Still, the Fall Maiden was known to have a wanderlust, and so eventually she'd find her way towards any of the other Kingdoms, escort or no. Either way, as long as that shadowed-thing wasn't able to interfere, she'd get what she had coming to her.

But it was time to shelve those plans for another day, and to play her role of exchange student from Mistral. She just had another month of intellect-gathering on the students and their potential skills, and then the plan would be ready to go once the festival kicked off in earnest.

Further upstairs, Ozpin reviewed the information Team RWBY had gathered about Merlot's Island, sharing several of the notes with Ironwood.

The General of Atlas had taken notice of the robots Merlot made use of, recognizing them as an offshoot of a much older model that had debuted well over 30 years prior. While he had privately wished that some components could've been salvaged during the investigation, he could also send a team out to the island to recover whatever was left after Merlot decided to detonate everything to cover his tracks.

'_And on that note..._' He made a few personal reminders to keep an eye out for if or when Merlot would try something similar to this once again. Experimenting on the Grimm was already dangerous enough.

**Meanwhile...**

**Celestia, Unknown Time**

The young angel child quickly ran towards the Seraphic Sanctuary. Many of the higher-ranked angels were granted access here, and someone inside had to know how to save this soul.

There were always a pair of angels stationed as guards out front. One of them would know who to contact.

"Hm?" One of the angels in question, a blonde-haired female, saw the young one approaching. "Hey, isn't that Hale's boy?"

"It is." The other guard, a male with a dirty-white coloration to his hair, affirmed. "Looks like he ran quite the way here." It was as the child drew closer that he noticed something. "What's that in his hands?"

"Only one way to know." As the child got close enough, she floated over. "Hey Ayatane. What do you have there?"

The child known as Ayatane came to a stop, panting all the while.

"Found this soul... it's hurt... real bad..." He held his hands out, the soul in them.

"...my word." The female guard felt her own blood run cold, seeing the poor state the soul was in. Her fellow guard quickly disappeared into the Sanctuary, to bring this to the attention of the other Archangels. In that time, the remaining guard would work what magic she knew to try and save this soul.

**Vale, Mountain Glenn Outskirts**

**10:01 A.M.**

Having finished up a late breakfast, Nelius had made his way back towards the former expansion site, weaponry in tow. Having easily hopped the fence, he strolled through the dilapidated town, mostly looking for Grimm to test the Usatako's new configurations upon.

However, something caught his interest. One of the buildings he had seen standing upright yesterday was now crumpled over, and there was a massive sinkhole in the ground as well. Signs of fresh battle damage could also be seen here and there.

'_Looks like there was one hell of a party here._'

'_But who'd be out here in the middle of this dump?_'

'_There was the White Fang - according to that news story, they were using Mountain Glenn as a base for launching that train._'

'_Perhaps, but this looks like it all happened within a 36-hour window... maybe someone was scavenging for whatever the Fang left behind, and ran into some Grimm?_'

'_Still wouldn't explain the building and sinkhole, unless someone was being exceedingly reckless or ran into one hell of a Grimm._'

'_...come to think of it, maybe this was why everything looked slightly off-kilter after the first test yesterday._'

The sound of something large hitting the ground broke their mental conversation, and as Nelius looked over to see what had made that sound, he noticed some more of the building had fallen over, revealing a curious logo.

'_...Merlot Industries. Probably was also a victim of this place's collapse._'

The telltale sound of growling gave way to the presence of Grimm. A small group of Beowolves had chanced upon him, lead by an Alpha. Most likely it was the earlier sound that caught their attention.

"Either way, new chance to make certain this works." With Maximov drawn, Nelius strode forth to dispatch the group of smoke monsters.

Two of the juvenile Beowolves tried to hit him in a pincer movement - that was swiftly defied with the Beowolf on his left getting its head cleaved off at the jawline courtesy of his axe, and when the one on his right made an attempt to avenge its fallen brethren, all this accomplished was getting everything above the neckline vaporized in a single punch.

As the battle, much as it could charitably be called such, continued on, Epsilon was busy checking over the Usatako's configuration. Sure enough, even though these Grimm had no life force, the new additions were beginning to kick in. With each Grimm Nelius felled, his power began to grow, not that he'd easily notice given the difference in strength.

The Alpha Beowolf howled in rage over seeing its brethren so easily slaughtered by this being, and darted forth in an attempt to avenge them. In a repeat of what had happened during one of his Grimm Extermination jobs, Nelius caught the claws that intended to rake across his chest with his free hand, but this time he raised his left foot, and slammed it down hard on the Alpha's right upper-thigh.

The thigh came loose from the stomp, and it was only through Nelius's grasp that the Alpha didn't fall over, though that did little to mitigate the damage. With one swing of Maximov the Alpha was decapitated, and soon began to dissolve away.

The sound of the rubble moving about caught his ear, and he turned in time to see a large Creep burrow up... and it had a strange, green glow to it as well.

'_...what in the?_'

'_...new kind of Grimm?_' The Mutated Creep tried to get in close to bite and tail-smack the demon, but it was soon stopped due to a bullet from Croixshot into its cranium. However, instead of dissolving, it began to quake uncontrollably before exploding into a green vapor. '_...suicidal Grimm?_'

'_Either way, I managed to get a good look at it thanks to my eye. Maybe we can compare notes with Ozpin and his bunch during the meeting on Friday?_'

'_Sounds good.. oh yeah, the results of the new configuration..._'

'_Feels like everything is working as intended, though we might need to get some stronger test subjects._'

'_Fair enough._'

With little better to do until the appointed time, Nelius headed back towards the base to further tweak the Dual Diver some more... and perhaps get some more supplies through an Item Dive.

Never hurt to have some extra stuff on the side.

Chapter 13 - Complete


	14. Chapter 14

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 14: Discoveries

Ilia, having found little to no trace of the Vale Branch around the southwest of Vale's outskirts, decided to stop back at the Vale Commercial District to stock back up on a few essentials.

Exiting a grocery with some easy assembly lunch packs, Ilia was left to wonder just what in blazes the Vale Branch was doing. Ever since the "Breach Attempt", as the local newspapers had called it, they seemingly dropped off the face of Remnant as a whole.

Sienna would be sorely disappointed in her if she returned with little to no information. After a quick double check to ensure her supplies were in order, it was time for another hunt around Vale's outskirts. Having mapped out most of the southern areas of Vale, she was planning on looking around the Forever Fall area to the north. Multiple train lines were known to run throughout the forest, more often than not carrying Dust shipments to Vale from Atlas.

It would be a very tempting target, one that Adam wouldn't pass up considering how much he loathed the Schnee Dust Company.

**Beacon Academy**

**12:52 P.M.**

Neo found herself getting increasingly bored with waiting for the Vytal Festival to arrive within the next month. Between Cinder's scheming and Emerald's moping over not yet being aware of said schemes, it was dragging the mood down considerably. Neo had a suspicion as to another reason why Emerald was moping around so much, but it wasn't anything she had stakes in.

She rolled over on the bed assigned to her within their dormitory room. Emerald was over at the other side of the room, absently tapping away at her Scroll and fidgeting on occasion.

With Roman currently locked up and likely being questioned for his crimes both before and after Cinder entered the picture, it didn't afford Neo much flexibility in being able to move around as she pleased. At this point she was considering taking a page from Mercury's book, and hopping onto a Bullhead headed down to Vale so she could pass the time in her own fashion...

Now that she began putting some honest thought into getting out of the Academy for a while, Roman's hideaway in the Upper-Class District shouldn't have been ransacked by the local law enforcement, so if the place was still stocked she could go hang out down there for a time.

With it being Saturday, today had been a half-day on classes, so everyone had gotten to go free a few hours ahead of schedule, and Mercury had taken that opportunity to leave Beacon's grounds posthaste.

Ultimately, she had gotten up from the bed and headed for the door. Emerald looked up and saw Neo already halfway out the door, but by the time she was about to speak up, the diminuitive woman was long gone. The thief was already dreading the prospect of having to explain to Cinder where Neo had decided to disappear off to.

Ever since that shadowy-thing stomped them into the ground and prevented Cinder from taking the Fall Maiden's powers, Cinder had been much more focused on whatever this scheme of hers was. Sure, the ability to control the elements sounded and looked amazing, at least when she wasn't on the receiving end, but why was Cinder so hell-bent on getting those powers?

Much as she wanted to know why all of this was so important, Cinder had taken her Scroll with her on another one of her walks, so Emerald couldn't simply sneak a peek at it.

'_This sucks..._' Looks like she'd have to wait for Cinder to relax her stance, however narrow the possibility.

Speaking of Cinder, she was currently down in the Courtyard, idly watching the passing students and matching faces to names, and thus names to Semblances and abilities. To everyone else, she was merely enjoying the good weather. Seeing the students so happy and carefree despite the many dangers lurking outside the walls did stoke her anger for a brief second, but just as quickly it was squashed beneath years of learning how to quell such emotions.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Goodwitch making her rounds. For a split second she thought a look of recognition flashed across the blonde's face, but ultimately decided she was seeing things... she had been down here on her Scroll for a good while, and while Aura was excellent for healing up wounds, it wasn't quite able to deal with eyesight issues that arose from staring at a closeby screen.

Maybe it was time to head elsewhere, and give her eyes a little rest.

**Atlas Prisoner Ship**

**12:54 P.M.**

Roman merely reclined back in his solitary cell, having finished yet another rousing round of questioning by Ironwood and his lackeys. Cinder was already inside Beacon, alongside whatever else she was planning. All he could be held accountable for was his numerous Dust robberies, and it was with one of the most smug, satisfied grins he made certain to let them know such.

'_Gotta admit, there's something fun about seeing ol' Jimmy get the runaround with all of this._' If he had a watch, he'd personally time how long it took before Ironwood decided to call it a day with the questions.

Still, he couldn't help but think back on the deal that lead him into Cinder's pocket.

**Sometime Last Year**

**Vale, Unknown Time**

"Roman Torchwick?" A woman's voice danced through the warehouse that Roman had currently claimed as his hideaway for the upcoming heist.

"And who wants to know?" The career criminal turned away from his latest heist's spoils, to see a rather alluring woman in red, flanked by two others - one girl with green hair, and a young man with grey hair that, for a split second, he thought looked all too familiar.

Still, he pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. This chick didn't look like of Vale's usual officers, but she could've easily been a plainclothes. If that were the case, then Neo picked a bad time to head down to Junior's.

"Someone who has... need of your considerable talents." Now this was something different. He usually got anonymous requests via Scroll, so someone coming up in person was new.

"Fair warning - my services don't come cheap."

At her gesture, the grey-haired one held his briefcase up, and with a simple click the locks were undone. Roman's eyes widened with some level of surprise as he saw the Lien lining the insides.

"Payment won't be an issue. Now, let's discuss..."

**Present Time**

'_...damn, has it really been that long? Time really does fly when you're having fun._' He thought back on those early days, quickly becoming the talk of Vale... wasn't like he could do anything else in here until Cinder's big plan finally took off. He knew Neo would be on her way to bust him out during that time, and then he could do his part in all of this.

As predicted, the forces didn't even think to check the innards of his favorite coat, so at least he still had the special Scroll... too bad it couldn't connect to anything, what with having the wireless functions stripped out to make room for a more potent connection port. He didn't dare bring it out of hiding, lest the cell door suddenly open and - oops, how did he get that Scroll? Then it'd be a matter of time before it got taken apart and the virus was found, and then Cinder's big plan was over.

About the most he could hope for was that Cinder would uphold her end of the deal. After going through all of this trouble, he'd be pissed if he were to be simply tossed aside and relegated to an afterthought.

**The Base**

**1:01 P.M.**

With one last bug test for the day coming back with no detectable errors, Nelius switched the Dual Diver to standby, and began to run a program to create a password system, so if it somehow did get into the wrong hands, the Dual Diver wouldn't be exploited by whomever managed to take it.

'_Now, what should be the password..._' He racked his mind for names or terms completely alien to Remnant or the Netherworld, needing something that wouldn't cross the minds of anyone.

His folks? Sure, their names weren't likely to crop up, but that wasn't a chance he wanted to take.

His weapons? Nah, too predictable.

'_...maybe I'm overthinking things._' He could always change the password whenever, so he could set one now, and then set another later. His fingers tapped away at the screen, entering in several letters. '_There. That should do it._'

He then immediately tested out said password, to ensure that he hadn't locked himself out of using the Dual Diver... that would suck.

'_Excellent._'

In the meantime, Epsilon was doing more surfing around Remnant's version of the internet, and at the same time she was comparing notes to what she had in her memory banks. Yet, her mind didn't seem to be all into it...

'_Hey, Nelius..._'

'_Something on your mind?_' With the password check complete, he had shut down the Dual Diver for the time being, making a mental note to go get some more Electric Dust Crystals.

'_Can't help but wonder... do you get the feeling Ozpin's not telling us everything on what he knows?_'

'_You mean in regard to Cinder and her group's actions? I get the feeling he's triple-checking things - I might not know all the details, but if someone was able to command the Grimm like she did with that insect, I'd be wary as all hell too.'_

'_Not just that. Back when we were spilling the beans out to them, for a split-second I thought I saw this look of deep regret cross Ozpin's face, like he's seen this sort of thing happen before._'

'_Well, we're due to meet with them again in six days. Plenty of time for us to jot down what questions we'd like answered the most._'

Epsilon didn't seem all that confident in such reasoning, but with Friday still a fair time away, speculating was about the best they could do until the meeting. She went back to her net-surfing, gathering up what information about Vale they hadn't yet found out about.

**Forever Fall**

**2:11 P.M.**

'_I see how this place got its name... if not for the Grimm this place would be quite lovely._' Weapon firmly gripped, Ilia looked around the area for any signs of the Fang. A couple of Creeps had tried to waylay her, but the bipedal Grimm proved little challenge to overcome.

One of the main sets of train tracks that lead to Vale was further in, so it'd be as good a place as any to start. That said, on her way towards those tracks, she took notice of all the old ruins, the signs of civilizations past... maybe her eyes were deceiving her, but some of them looked like they had been forced open, no doubt the work of someone looking to pillage them.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she went over to investigate one.

'_Cages?_' Indeed, within the first set of ruins she went to investigate, there were several cages, a sigil depicting an M on each one. To her surprise, there had been some Grimm within the cages, mostly Creeps... had being the operative word here, as right before her eyes some of the Grimm simply flopped over and dissolved away, leaving nothing behind. She'd heard of how captive Grimm simply died after a time, but to see it happen-

"Over here, sir!" The voice of a man snapped Ilia from her thoughts and forced her to find a hiding spot within the ruins. Blending in with the surroundings as best she could, she watched as several men and robots, undoubtedly from Atlas, flooded into the ruins.

"It's as Ozpin's team said - Merlot was capturing Grimm for those experiments." The presumed commander of the group signaled for the robots to take the cages out of the ruins.

'_Merlot? Experiments on Grimm?_' She made a mental note to look up this "Merlot" once the coast was clear.

"There's more said to be further ahead. Move out." With the cages and other loose bits of evidence secured, the Atlesian forces moved out to the next point of investigation.

About eight seconds after the last Atlesian left the area, Ilia slowly emerged from hiding. Something about all of this felt off, but that could wait. She needed to finish her own investigation into finding the Vale branch.

Leaving the first set of ruins, she had to creep by the other investigating forces to get a head-start on them. By process of elimination Adam had to be camping out somewhere in Forever Fall... the other outskirts of Vale were already checked over, and the Emerald Forest was right in Beacon's backyard... large force or no, the White Fang was basically no match for whatever Hunters that Beacon had at its call.

As she continued on, a thought crossed her mind - if the Vale Branch was hiding out in Forever Fall, then unless they moved out early it'd only be a matter of time until the investigating forces would end up stumbling across them. The events from two years ago still hung over the air, so both groups meeting would easily end in a bloodbath.

She took off running, hoping to get as much distance from the investigating forces as possible. She would need all the time she could afford to track down the Vale Branch.

**Mistral Bar**

**5:21 P.M., Mistral Central Time**

Qrow took a seat at one of his favorite bars, a half-drained glass in his right hand. In his left hand was his Scroll, and on-screen was a message from Ozpin that had been sent to him on Wednesday, the 14th... which was the reason he was in Mistral in the first place.

Sender: Headmaster Ozpin

Subject: Recon work

In light of some recent information that came our way, Ironwood and I have noticed a disturbing lack of contact coming from Headmaster Lionheart. I'm more than aware of what amount of work can pile upon a Headmaster, but even so this is much unlike him.

Find out what you can about Leonardo's sudden silence, but try to be discreet about it. I'd prefer for him to not clam up about things even further. Whatever you manage to find may help clear up several suspicions.

'_Discreet, huh..._' He knew of one method that was discreet enough to work, but since Lionheart was a part of Ozpin's Inner Circle, the Haven Academy Headmaster might easily see him, and then change up his story.

Guess it was time for Plan B... which he'd get started on in a few hours with the cover of night working in his favor.

**Vale, Forever Fall**

**2:51 P.M., Vale Time**

Footprints in the dirt, and they looked relatively undisturbed.

Ilia studied the direction these tracks were headed, and quietly followed them. She roughly estimated there was about a good hour or so before the Atlas forces investigating that "Merlot" guy would catch up to her current position, which should give her plenty of time to confirm if the Vale Branch was nearby.

One of the major railways was visible from here, and as she approached, she took notice of a small clearing where a few tents were up. It was slightly covered by another tent due to Ilia's position, but she swore she saw the White Fang's emblem.

'_Is it Adam's group?_' She crept in low, to reduce visibility, and put her hearing to work, trying to get a read on how many were present.

There were no sounds of movement, but that alone proved nothing concrete as to the number of inhabitants. She'd have to risk getting closer. With a sigh of resignation she crept into the encampment, making certain to make as little noise as possible.

Nearing one of the first tents, she peered in as carefully as she could. Nobody in here, but there were some supplies. Looked like some vacuum-sealed packs, to keep the food as fresh as possible.

Another tent looked to have been set up to house at least four people. Nobody here, either.

The third tent was more of the same-

'_Hm?_' What caught Ilia's eye was a lone Scroll sitting next to a map. Curious - nobody in the Fang ever left a Scroll unattended, much less a map. Taking one more quick look around to make certain nobody had cottoned onto her presence, she snuck into the tent to get a better look.

'_Best make this quick._'

The map was one of Forever Fall, with intricate notes of the railways that ran from further north and through the forest into Vale. Some times were also posted near a few marked sites, either times the train would be going through the area or when the Fang members would set up shop in anticipation of it.

As for the Scroll... unfortunately, it was password-locked. Ilia cursed her unfortunate luck, meaning that she'd have to stick around the area and wait for that Scroll's owner to return and unlock it.

She crept away from the encampment, and withdrew her own Scroll.

Sender: Ilia Amitola

Subject: Vale Branch Update

Found an Fang encampment in Forever Fall. Nobody present, though. I'm going to keep watch and see if it's Adam's group. Time isn't on my side, as Atlas forces are sweeping through the area.

Message sent, Ilia went to go find a secluded spot and set up a vigil on the camp. She could only hope that whomever was heading this camp returned before the Atlas people got here.

**(Formerly) Merlot's Island**

**4:56 P.M.**

Atlas forces were picking through the remains of Merlot's secluded island laboratory, hoping to find some remnants of the disgraced doctor's research to take back.

So far, their searches were turning up very little - the self-detonation of the entire island had pretty much ruined everything. A few scrapped components of Merlot's robots were found and secured away, but a majority of Merlot's computer banks were not only blown apart, but it looked like there had been a small pulse meant to fry the systems and purge all relevant information.

The shipyard was also in ruins, crates of supplies jostled loose and floating in the waters, if they hadn't been blown apart. Whatever was salvageable was quickly taken back to the Bullheads.

"Looks like this was a wash." With that, the Atlas forces packed up what little they had found out here and took off to report back with Ironwood.

Hardly two minutes after the departure of the Atlas forces, a stray Bullhead touched down where they had just been.

Out stepped a tall, middle-aged gentleman with a slim build and graying black hair. He was clad in a grey overcoat with yellow lining, a yellow dress shirt and a black necktie, his pants matching his overcoat's color. Finger less gloves matched to his cordovan shoes, and green eyes peered out over the ruined island.

His face scrunched a bit in disgust, seeing all of this useful technology having gone to waste.

'_Perhaps her information was too little, too late..._' Still he was here to do a job, and with a slight smoothing of his mustache, he strolled out onto the island proper. Perhaps there was something here that was overlooked...

**Vale, Commercial District**

**6:30 P.M.**

Nelius walked out of one of the local restaurants, having finished grabbing a bite to eat. As he headed back towards the base, he took a moment to just look around for a bit, and listen to the night life.

Animate chatter about the upcoming Vytal Festival was increasing, with a few Vale natives actively looking forward to seeing what teams would be coming in from the other Academies. Others could be heard taking bets on which Beacon teams would make it to the finals and who'd get eliminated early on.

Apparently, out of the Beacon teams, two of the first-year teams, Ruby and Juniper, were supposed to be up-and-comers with prospective talent. A second-year team, Coffee, was also looking to be a favorite to get to the finals.

'_...I could understand Ruby and Juniper being team names, but coffee? Someone must've been pressed for time-_'

Suddenly, Nelius stopped, looking over his right shoulder.

'_Something up?_'

'_...thought I felt someone watching me._' After a moment, the feeling faded, and so he continued heading south.

Elsewhere in Vale's Commercial District, Neo had exited one of her favorite stores, and was headed right back for the Upper-Class District. Her Scroll had buzzed a few times, likely Cinder wondering where the hell she was for the last few hours, but she could wait.

Having to share space with the trio cut into her personal time, and while she had to keep up appearances at Beacon for classes, outside of that she wasn't going to spend any more time with them than was necessary.

Besides, there was still about two to three hours left before the Bullhead to Beacon made its last trip for the night, so she could unwind in her own personal way.

**Forever Fall**

**6:41 P.M.**

The sounds of rustling and activity jostled Ilia from her thoughts. The camp was becoming more animated as its group members returned. From how things looked from her vantage point, they had just robbed one of the Schnee Dust Company trains, if the snowflake emblem on the sides of several of the crates proved anything.

Ilia found herself wishing it was darker out, so she could sneak closer-by and find out if whomever owned that Scroll had unlocked it yet... true, a Faunus's enhanced night vision would've robbed most of the advantage night's cover provided, but at the same time she had a way to compensate for it. Whatever she was about to dwell upon next was hushed as Adam Taurus walked up to the camp from a different direction, Callan greeting him from the raiding party.

She strained her hearing to try and get an idea of what it is the two were conversing about.

"...new orders... moving out..."

"...again?... odd behavior... High Leader."

That got Ilia's attention. Sienna hadn't told her of any orders for Adam's group to be doing any raids out here.

She waited a few more minutes for Adam's group to pack up the camp and newly stolen Dust, then begin heading out to find the new spot. Once they were safely out of earshot and sight, she pulled out her Scroll.

Sender: Ilia Amitola

Subject: Urgent Update

Adam's group has been located. However, I overheard claims that orders had come down from you to be stealing Dust from the Schnees. I plan on following to gather better information.

Message sent, the young Faunus dropped out of her hiding area and began to track Adam's group. Silently, she thanked her luck for the Atlesian forces not running into the Fang group.

The Atlesian Forces investigating the Merlot situation had gone a completely different path, investigating even more of the old ruins and stumbling upon a shipping yard.

**Haven Academy**

**9:25 P.M., Mistrali Central Time**

Staring out the open back window of his office, with a deeply contemplative look upon his face, was a man with dark brown eyes. He wore a brown greatcoat with a matching mantle, cross emblems on each side. He also wore a white dress shirt beneath his coat, a necktie and carried a pocket watch. Dark brown slacks and dress shoes completed his ensemble.

However, anyone familiar with him would've recognized him from his veritable mane of tan-grey hair and matching beard.

This was Leonardo Lionheart, Haven Academy's Headmaster. Behind him, his desk's display was showing several missed messages from various people, chief among them Ozpin. More than anything else he wanted to respond to them truthfully, but a certain something had him metaphorically around the neck, forcing him to respond with vague reports of things being well. Sadly, it seemed Ozpin wasn't convinced by his reports.

He looked back over to his display, seeing that it was approaching half past the hour. With a heavy heart he stepped away from the window, and approached his bookshelf. Pressing a small space next to the shelf, it slid over, revealing a hallway into a chamber beyond.

After double-checking to make certain his office doors were securely locked, he entered the chamber. Thankfully most of the other professors were teaching well on the other side of the campus, so in the time it'd take for them to arrive he'd be done with his business.

Unbeknownst to Lionheart, and much to his own dwindling luck, a crimson-eyed corvid had flown into the office, thanks to the open window allowing some cool air in on this warm night.. Originally, they were going to start looking for information, but that odd chamber proved more interesting.

The bird quietly followed Lionheart into the chamber, and the shock of what it saw around the corner nearly made it lose its concentration.

Floating in the middle of the chamber and surrounded by a bunch of lit candles was a kind of Grimm not yet seen before. It was spherical in appearance, roughly the size of a human's head and covered in sporadic bone plating, and had red tendrils ending in bone spikes. Within that sphere was a red cloud that seemed to look like an eye.

What disturbed the bird even more was when a female's voice began to emit from the Grimm.

"Your report, Leonardo?"

"Yes, Your Grace." With a slight hesitation, he continued. "The schedules for the other professors is in place. Once Cinder's end in all of this is complete, I'll be putting it into play."

"Good. Any news on the Spring Maiden?"

"Unfortunately, still nothing. I've had some of my best looking for her.."

"Continue doing so. She will be necessary for what comes next."

The bird immediately high-tailed it out of the room once Leonardo turned to leave, and within seconds it was out the window and elsewhere. The Headmaster of Haven was none the wiser as he slid the bookshelf back into its position, covering the chamber's entrance.

'_I wish I could tell her her plans would amount to nothing..._' He shuddered. '_...but there's no way I could oppose her. How could I, anyway?_'

**White Fang Headquarters**

**10:52 P.M., unknown Mistrali Time Zone**

Sienna got up from the High Leader's seat, looking over to her two guards.

"Zareen, Albus, it's late. Get the night patrols on duty and get some rest."

"Understood, High Leader." With that, the two guards stepped down from their positions and headed off to find the night shift and assign them their posts.

Sienna took this time to walk towards her personal quarters, and once inside she locked the door behind herself. Withdrawing her Scroll from the pouch on her right hip, she opened it one last time to check for any messages that needed attending to.

Seeing nothing here, she shut the Scroll down, connecting it to the charger to keep it ready for tomorrow's business. With that, she looked over to her personal dresser, and as she opened one of the bottom drawers, instead of looking for suitable sleepwear, she pulled the drawer completely out and reached into the gap, finding a secret compartment she had installed. Within said compartment was a crimson-colored Scroll with a grey trim.

Sienna opened the Scroll up, and as she connected it to the Mistral CCT, several messages from Ilia popped up, and as the High Leader read through them... her eyes narrowed.

'_Either he's deliberately ignoring my orders, or..._' Copying these messages to a document, she shut the power off and placed the Scroll back in its hidden compartment, replacing the drawer soon after.

She was going to need to formulate a plan.

Chapter 14: Complete


	15. Chapter 15

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 15: Sudden Shift

Ilia double-checked her belongings one more time before she prepared to go to bed for the night.

'_Let's see... clothing, check. Dismantled "evidence", right here... Scroll's recordings, properly labeled and filed away... it's a bit of a shame I couldn't see if she really was here.._'

When news had come in that the person in question had outright left after a mission, Ilia felt her heart sink, not yet knowing of why it was they fled. She shook those thoughts off, choosing to redouble her focus on getting back to headquarters. Once this business was squared away, then she could get to dealing with her personal search.

With everything secured, Ilia got into bed, placing her Scroll on the bedside table. Once the morning came, she would board a passenger flight back to Mistral and present her findings to the High Leader. She didn't want to risk transferring the recordings through the CCT, and having a random Atlas official intercept them while they were here for the Vytal Festival. With Ironwood heading security, the risk of being found out would only exponentially rise.

The time on her Scroll read 10:32 P.M., with an alarm set for 7:15 A.M. This would give her enough time to prepare for the earliest flight back. She tried to settle in as best she could, but sleep would continue to elude her for a time, her mind going over everything she had discovered.

**Several Universes Away**

**Celestia, Current Time Unknown**

With the soul retrieved and placed in a special chamber, several of the higher-ranking angels began focusing their magic to try and heal it. Needless to say, when information of this soul's condition began to spread, speculation wasn't far behind.

"...what could've done this?" One of the angels wondered aloud, echoing the feelings felt by the others that had borne witness to the sight.

"Archangel Virunga has a plan to get some information, but it requires this soul to heal first." Another informed, albeit the tone of their voice implied a level of uncertainty to whatever method was in the works.

Ayatane, after informing some of the other angels of where he had found the soul, opted to head back home. His mother was going to be working with the other angels to help restore the soul, and with his lessons done for the day, he had little else to do until his older sister came back. He was about a third of the way there when something moved out of the corner of his eye, halting his movement.

Looking over, for a brief moment, he would've sworn on Lamington's name he had seen someone else headed back towards another part of Celestia... someone whom wasn't in the usual white and blue / grey garb that most wore up here.

In the time it took for the young angel to blink, the person was gone.

'_...what was that?_'

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**Sunday, September 18, 10:21 A.M.**

Nelius, having little else to do at the moment, had decided on taking a journey into the deeper recesses of his heart. Knowing that the beast made by those chaos powers was still lurking somewhere, he wasn't going to give it much of a chance to plan for another assault. From what he remembered of his home Netherworld, there was a town out towards the east that would've provided plenty of cover for a beast that large, and if this representation of his heart was accurate to his memories, it'd be a good place to start looking.

That being said, that beast was far from the only obsticale he would encounter.

Within one's own heart lurked the subconscious, manifestations of varying issues that worked to suppress one's own potential from coming forth. Weakness of the mind, prejudice towards others, the inability to objectively hear another viewpoint, personal pride, and many others.

These subconscious could be seen as something akin to the Notorious of the Item World, working against their host, but whereas the Notorious were outwardly aggressive and did everything they could to hinder one's progress, the subconscious were cautious, preferring to sequester themselves away within remote areas of the heart in a bid to be left alone. Other demons would easily call these hindrances a cowardly lot.

As Nelius approached the outskirts of that town in particular, a number of figures appeared. Among the crowd were multiple Wood Golems, Dragons, Ghosts and various other kinds of demons from back home, but at the same time, they weren't moving to attack, or flee...

"...OK, those blank stares are starting to get a little creepy..." Epsilon piped up, seeing the hundreds upon thousands of eyes staring them down.

Nelius ventured closer, and they remained still.

"...this does seem a little odd. Normally they'd be running." To test a theory, he withdrew Croixshot and fired at the feet of the nearest creatures.

The bullet impacted the ground nearest their feet, but they remained unflinchingly still, as if they didn't even register being shot at.

"...are they scared stiff?"

"If that's the case, then it's possible that big and ugly could be in here." Holstering Croixshot, he tightened his gauntlets. "This is an opportunity for us."

"Wait a second - didn't they run from him the first go-around? Why would they stand guard if it was in here?"

"Maybe to keep other residents from being attacked?" Speculating was only going to get them so far. Now prepared for a fight to erupt, Nelius ventured closer to the group. Some of them moved to impede his progress.

"Can't let you through. Won't let you through!" One of the Ghosts piped up, an expression on its face that was a mix of resolution and slight terror.

"We can hold him... we must hold him." A Dragon spoke up, its voice subdued and more quiet compared to most other Dragons.

"You do realize that's a temporary solution, right?" Nelius fired back. "If you beings do represent my heart, then you should know that this will fail sooner or later... all seals tend to."

"No!" A Gargoyle shot back. "We can do this! We will..."

"Just stand aside. That beast must be confronted before it can do any more damage." When the crowd refused to disperse, and instead packed more densely together, he gave a sigh which was a mix of irritation and resignation. "I didn't come here to fight you bunch, but if you're intent on doing this then I have little other choice."

'_Let's hope the fighting won't wake him early..._' Epsilon privately wished as Nelius prepared to do battle with the crowd. The subconscious manifestations swarmed in, attempting to drive him off.

Ducking beneath the claws of a Dragon, Nelius brought his fist up and buried it in its gut, cracking its scales and bones in one blow. Removing his fist and kicking the remains of the subconscious away, he swiftly drew Maximov and cut through a Wood Golem, splitting it in half height-wise. He immediately followed up with a Fire spell, to torch the golem's remains and ensure it wouldn't recover.

Several Ghosts pooled their magic together to try and pin him down with a paralysis spell. Nelius felt himself lock up, giving a few others time to close the distance, but after managing to identify the parties responsible, he shakily pulled his arm up and launched a Wind spell their way. The Ghosts were immediately torn to pieces, their shrouds no longer capable of keeping their corporeal form stable. A moment later the paralysis wore off.

'_Note to self... gonna need to invest in status protection._' Shaking off the effects as best he could, he quickly flipped to get out of the way of a Gargoyle that tried to drop on top of him from thousands of feet above. He then retaliated with a punch to its face, caving it in.

As the fight continued, each subconscious taken down slowly but steadily released long dormant potential power within Nelius... dormant power that had been lying in wait ever since his first steps in leaving his former boss's employ, and into the greater beyond. While his years of training and battle had done wonders to make him stronger, this method of increasing one's potential worked in tandem with the former, and was but one of the myriad ways that Netherworld Demons became amazingly strong.

What he didn't yet know was that not all of the subconscious' hidden power was being directed his way...

The subconscious saw they were fighting a losing battle, and quickly retreated. Some scattered to parts unknown, whilst the others decided to run into the place they had been trying to blockade.

"Path's open." With no more subconscious barring his path, he ran into the area suspected to house the mystery monster formed from the previous world's events.

**Vale, Beacon Academy**

**10:26 A.M.**

Cinder was by herself in the shared dorm room, taking advantage of the relative quiet to double-check her plans for Beacon. Thanks to the virus now comfortably resting within the CCT, she would effectively have complete control over the festival's events.

Emerald and Mercury had headed into Vale to do their own thing. However, as Emerald was headed out the door, for a split second Cinder thought she had seen a look of pessimism cross the young thief's face.

'_She might feel a little better once we're out of here._' Ultimately she chose to put the thought aside for the time being.

Neo, on the other hand, was idling about somewhere on campus, probably also keeping tabs on the students and looking for any weaknesses they could exploit. She'd need to remember to ask the diminutive woman about any findings once she returned.

From what all she had gathered, most of the student teams would be easy to pit against one another, so little to worry about there. That said, Pyrrha Nikos was a favorite to win, with both student forums and other sites claiming such.

Cinder felt the gears in her head turning even more so as she re-reviewed the records detailing Miss Nikos' accomplishments, alongside what Emerald and Mercury had observed during the latter's spar with her prior to the Dance. One hell of an idea was brewing, but it needed something more to have the best effect.

The next step now was gathering information on whatever other student teams were showing up for the festival. Her notes on the Beacon students were saved and squared away, and a new sheet was prepared for the other teams.

She put her Scroll down and took a minute to flex her fingers out and remove some amount of stiffness from them.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**10:29 A.M.**

"Whoa... it's super-dark in here."

The area Nelius had entered lay within a thicket of trees, easily reaching well over 700 feet into the air. Such a dense growth of foilage had effectively, efficiently blocked out any kind of light from reaching within. For most anyone else, they wouldn't be able to see their own hand in front of their face. As such, Epsilon had to take a moment to adjust her eyesight.

"Kinda how this place got its new name, the Town of Midnight. My home Netherworld used to be a human world, but when it got converted the demonic power made this place's trees grow to immense size... don't think I remember what the old name was."

Many of the trees in question had been partially carved out to make dwellings for any inhabitants that decided to reside here. In fact, one could see a few signs indicating the local RosenQueen branch.

"Huh. I'm looking around, yet I don't see any clearing big enough for our target to hide in."

"Then again, this is but a visualization of what lies within. We shouldn't take it at face value."

The two searched around the town, but after around twenty minutes it became increasingly clear that Epsilon had been onto something - there wasn't any clearing large enough for their target. At the same time, the subconscious that had fled into this town weren't anywhere around either.

"Was this a ruse?"

"...might've been. There's only one other place I can think of that would suffice - the old port further east. Dimensional Vessels showed up there all the time - it'd be a perfect spot for someone as big as him."

"_**Oh, but I have no more reason to stay my hand.**_" A familiar voice thundered, and as Nelius looked over to where it originated from, what awaited him wasn't the hulking form of the multi-eyed monstrosity, but... a mirror image of himself?

Indeed, this character looked much like Nelius, but his coloration was more drab and muted, as if a more subdued variation.

"...so what's this supposed to be, an imitation attempt?"

"_**No mere imitation, I can assure you.**_" The mirror-Nelius opened its eyes, revealing the same shade of munsell that the beast had on its main eye. "_**Thanks to those subconscious throwing themselves at you, I've gotten all I need to take over.**_"

"You really think it'll be that easy?" Nelius, in response, had undone his eye-patch, pocketing it. The eye-socket that acted as a gateway to his formerly sealed powers glowed with an orange spark. "I've had years to come to terms with that issue."

"_**This is far from being about that issue. Why do you deny your demonic roots - this world is easily yours for the taking, just like the last one! Just let me take control-**_"

"I think not. That'd make me no better than the other fools."

"_**And there it goes again, with this talk! You are a demon, not some soft and weak Celestial or human. Act like one!**_"

"If that's your only argument, I believe I've heard enough. Time to put this to bed."

Gauntlets tightened, Nelius sped in to fight his doppelganger.

**Vale, Beacon Academy**

**11:10 A.M.**

Ozpin took a moment to get up from his desk and stretch. Despite it being Sunday, he still had a mess of messages to sort through, not to mention his own thoughts.

Within the past week or so, he'd learned that demons and angels exist, were far different compared to the legends and other tales he'd known of, and that an agent of his greatest foe was right here inside Beacon. Add in the fact that Dr. Merlot was out there somewhere and it added up to being one of his more stressful days-

\- scratch that, his desk's computer just pinged, indicating a new message. Leaning over so he could bring up the message...

Sender: Qrow Branwen

Subject: Regarding Leo

Got little time to explain this one, Oz. Get Jimmy on the horn and find us somewhere we can speak in private. I'll be at Beacon by tomorrow afternoon once I finish some business at Signal.

'_For Qrow to say this... did Leonardo catch wind?_' Either way, he had to open a private line to Ironwood.

About a minute later, a video conference call opened up to Atlas, but it wasn't Ironwood on the other end. Facing him in the video chat was a woman with hair as white as snow. Icy blue eyes stared back at Beacon's Headmaster, and from the state of her uniform one could tell she was one of the Specialists hand-picked by Ironwood himself.

"Headmaster Ozpin, now this is unusual." She replied with a crisp, no-nonsense tone. "Normally it's us needing to call you."

"Specialist Schnee, should Ironwood return let him know one of my own has some urgent information regarding Lionheart's current silence. He'll be here tomorrow afternoon."

"Will do." With that, the call ended.

'_Looks like this mess got even more complicated..._' Friday couldn't come any sooner.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**11:22 A.M.**

The trees shuddered and splintered as the battle between Nelius and his muted doppelganger continued on. Each punch that collided with one another released shockwaves that threatened to collapse the town around them. Every kick that met its opposite tore at the ground beneath them, creating gaping fissures that were poised to swallow the town whole.

His doppelganger made an attempt to bite down on his throat, but this was swiftly countered with a throat grab of his own, and with a twist of his body Nelius tossed his enemy down towards the ground. The doppelganger spread its own wings, slowing its fall to allow it to right itself, touching off the ground and flying towards Nelius.

"_**Why do you persist?!**_" The doppelganger growled out, clearly frustrated at its stalled progress. It tried to bring a trans-morphed wing up as a blade, but was stopped by Nelius' own wing hardening and acting as a shield. It brought the wing-blade away, only to receive a blast of Fire magic to its face, causing it to roar in pain.

That moment was all Nelius needed to drive a fist into its midsection.

"I'm going to defy those old rules that did nothing but hold us all back." As he removed his fist from his doppelganger's sternum, he drifted backwards a bit for what was about to happen next.

"_**Defy?! How could-**_" The doppelganger didn't get much of a chance to finish its question, as it felt a horrendous tugging sensation where it had been struck. It looked down, only to immediately pale. "_**No! NO! SHI-**_"

In that instant, when Nelius had buried his fist into his opponent's gut, he had used one of the strongest close-combat techniques the Netherworld had ever developed.

The Big Bang. Named for the same event many believe was responsible for the creation of the Universe as a whole, if not potentially the Multiverse and beyond, the user punched with enough force to collapse the point of impact unto itself, creating an immensely powerful well of gravity that drew in any unfortunate enough to be close enough to it.

Of course, there had been many variations of this skill. One simply hurled the enemy into a star, when then exploded. Another had the user strike a celestial body hard enough to fracture it and send its debris crashing down upon the hapless foe.

The version Nelius had used was developed during the Veldime Incident, creating a smaller, more localized gravity well that drew his doppelganger into it, despite their best attempts as escaping. A few seconds later, the impact point glowed with intense beams of light escaping through several cracks before ultimately detonating.

The detonation reached high into the skyline, searing an immense hole through the canopy of the trees and causing light to enter this area for the first time, illuminating the now wrecked town.

The doppelganger violently slammed into the ground, blood flying from its mouth. Its skin was cracked, with wisps of steam escaping here and there from muscles that had been seared to a degree unheard of. Its eyes were bloodshot, and its breathing was ragged and choked.

"_**W-w-why...**_" It barely managed to choke out amidst horrified coughs. Any attempt at moving was quickly halted by the immense damage taking such an attack would entail, and if the damage alone wasn't enough of a hindrance, the pain from it all only sealed the deal.

In response, Nelius bent down, his hand just large enough to wrap around the doppelganger's face. He lifted his foe to its feet, and in-between his fingers he could see his foe's eyes staring him back, abject terror filling them.

"I've seen where acting like that has gotten demons killed. If you truly are a part of me, then you'd know precisely what I'm referring to. Those whom don't learn will repeat past mistakes."

His doppelganger said nothing, save for raspy breathing.

"With or without you, I'm going to continue on my own path. What will you decide?"

His doppelganger stared back, unable to give a coherent response at that moment.

**Several Universes Away**

**Celestia, Unknown Time**

It had taken what felt like days, but the soul was beginning to stabilize. The angels assigned to help restore the soul were already feeling winded, but they were determined to see this through. Archangel Virunga, however, had these angels step down for the time being to get some rest, whilst a new bunch took their place.

One of these angels was on her way back home. Long violet-colored hair hung in a braid behind her, and she stood fairly tall for a Celestian, easily between 5'11" and 6'2". However, one standout feature to note was her eyes, which were always seen closed, not unlike the Female Healers of the Netherworld. Despite such, this particular Celestian was more than capable of performing whatever tasks were needed.

'_I can only hope the Archangel's plan succeeds._' Upon hearing that a holy soul was in such a state, she had felt her blood run colder than when she had felt the backwash of a Giga Ice spell during training all those years ago. Actually feeling the state the soul was in made her heart sink, but at the same time it made her even more determined to save it.

Either way, she had done what she could. Now the matter was in the hands of the other angels working with Virunga. For the time being, all she could do was rest up and be on-call in case she was needed.

Her trip home was cut short by the Celestial Gate glowing with dimensional energy, signifying that someone was coming through. While angels were known to travel and in out of Celestia, mostly down to the Netherworld for training, those leaving to do so usually always sent a report back before using the gate.

As the glow died down, a trio of figures could be seen emerging from the gate itself.

"Home at last." The first one to speak up was a Female Celestial with blonde hair. There was something of a weariness to her voice.

"It's been too long." The second to speak was a yellow-furred, bipedal animal with a pair of feathered wings on its back. Its face was notedly canine in appearance, and a pair of curled horns framed its face. This was a Holy Dragon, a subspecies that had evolved to live in Celestia.

"First thing's first, we need to check in with the Seraph." The last was a Male Celestial. He looked up to find the quickest way to the Seraphic Sanctuary, only to immediately lay his eyes on the violet-haired angel. "Hold a moment... Miss Hale, is that you?"

"Hm- Raphael? Aliya? Michael?" The one identified as Hale was stunned. "It's been years since we got your last report. What on earth happened?"

"Long story short, we were trapped on a world that had long since turned inward on itself. We'll gladly explain more once we give our report to Seraph Lamington." Michael spoke up.

"Then let's not waste any more time." Hale's trip home could wait a few minutes longer. The quartet began their trek back towards the Seraphic Sanctuary.

**Vale, Beacon Academy**

**Monday, September 19, 3:43 P.M.**

Ozpin, Glynda and Ironwood were all waiting for Qrow to show up so he could deliver this supposed news. To keep things quiet, Ozpin had requested that their Scrolls be shut off, and had even shut his desk's system down to prevent any interruptions.

A few minutes later, the doors to Ozpin's office opened, and Qrow walked in. His usual flask wasn't at his side, nor was it in his hand. The usual odor of alcohol didn't emanate from him at all.

"So then, Qrow... what was so important?" Ironwood broke the silence after a few tense seconds.

"This." Qrow withdrew his own Scroll, opening it to tablet mode and bringing up a certain image before flipping it around. "Took me forever to find a way to sneak past Leonardo."

The tension in the room could be felt as the trio looked the image over. The image in question was of the strange, jellyfish-esque Grimm hidden in the secret chamber.

"Believe it or not, Oz, it only gets worse. I heard _her_ voice coming from that thing. He's got something lined up with the Haven Professors when the Vytal Festival kicks off.. likely at her command."

If the tension in the room got any thicker, one would need something far sharper than a knife to cut it.

Ozpin grimaced, his fears coming to pass.

"James..." The Beacon Headmaster spoke up after a moment. "...we might have to push that meeting up early."

"Hm? You mean with-"

"Yes. Him."

"Uh, Oz... who're you talking about?" Seems it was time to give Qrow the rundown.

**The Base**

**3:57 P.M.**

Nelius stepped into the base, exiting the Item Diver and shutting it down for the time being. Checking on the Electric Dust Crystal, he made a mental note for a replacement. He then headed around to the other side of the machine and picked up Croixshot, checking it over.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave it back there like that yesterday?" Epsilon piped up. "Won't it just make another attempt to usurp control?"

"Hopefully it won't, but I've made my stance known." He holstered his gun, satisfied with its progress. "Whether or not it accepts that will remain to be seen. For now, best we can do is focus on other present matters."

Walking over to his Scroll, he went to open his notes and record his findings, only to notice a new message icon flash up about a minute later. After putting his notes down and saving it, he flipped over to the messages tab to see what this was all about.

Sender: James Ironwood

Subject: Promised Meeting Update - Urgent

Greetings, Raoul and Epsilon. Circumstances have changed, unfortunately not for the better, and as such it's becoming projected that our meeting will have to happen sooner.

"Circumstances, huh..." Epsilon seemed curious as to what would force them to change the meeting date.

Instead of this Friday, Ozpin is looking to have the meeting tomorrow at Beacon, roughly around noon. Will you be able to attend?

"At Beacon itself, eh?" Nelius admitted to a level of curiosity as to what the Combat Academy taught its students, but that could wait for another time. He hit the "Reply" button, and began to type out his response.

Sender: Nelius Raoul

Re: Subject: Promised Meeting Update - Urgent

Epsilon and I will be there.

Nelius was about to send the reply, but then got an idea. He decided to add more onto the response.

Speaking of the meeting, something Epsilon and I have been working on is complete. Perhaps once business is attended to we can give a demonstration of it.

The reply was sent.

"You're really doing this?" Epsilon asked, feeling personally uncertain about the idea of displaying the Dual Diver so openly.

"It's why I had all the security and backup measures added. 'Sides, it'll also let us check off those questions we've had for a while now."

"Let's just hope this won't come back to bite us. Though, how exactly are we going to get it up there?"

**Several Universes Away**

**Celestia, Unknown Time**

Lamington, the Seraph of Celestia, was mentally pondering the series of events that lead to Raphael, Aliya and Michael's return after all these years... the most he could do at the moment was hope that whomever was now in charge of that world would run it far better than its predecessor had.

"Still, what do you plan to do from this point forward?"

"I know Mita said she's planning on scouring the greater Cosmos to find Nelius and help him get home... kind of a paying it back deal for helping to get us all out of that mess." Micheal spoke up. "I would love to join her, but the events on that world played havoc with my senses."

"I promised Farris I'd help get Michael back into better condition." Aliya spoke up next.

"And yourself, Raphael?" Lamington looked towards the one that had yet to speak up. There was a moment before an answer came forth.

"I plan on assisting Mita in her search. Only fair we help get our last man home."

"Very well. May your search be fruitful."

With that, the three excused themselves from Lamington's presence, and exited the Seraphic Sanctuary.

"How did it go?" Hale was waiting outside for them.

"Rather well, but Michael and Aliya are sticking around. I'm not."

"What? Why?"

"Promised Mita I'd lend her my assistance. One of our group got seperated, so she's taking this time to stock up so we can find him. 'Sides, Michael's not in the best of shape, even with our trip home giving us plenty of time to shake off what went down over there."

"Sounds like he was important."

"Everyone was, but he ended up doing a lot of the legwork. Only fair we help him return home."

"I see. Still, be careful out there. I don't want to have to entertain the thought of losing any of you again."

**White Fang Headquarters**

**Unknown Mistrali Time**

Ilia didn't waste any time. The moment she had gotten off the airship and away from the crowd she beelined straight for HQ. Thankfully for all involved, the HQ was deep within the more woodland areas to the south, so being tracked wouldn't be much of an issue.

Bounding up the stairs as quick as she could, Ilia didn't even pay notice to one of the members that had been watching her mad dash into the building.

'_My... Sister Amitola's in quite the fervor..._' This member wore a white-trimmed red hood which doubled as a cloak, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and matching string. He was clad in a black tunic with white trim, and at the rear of his white pleated pants an opening had been sewn in to give his fox tail freedom to move. Detached white sleeves, bound at the bicep and at his wrists by black gloves completed his ensemble.

Ultimately putting it out of his mind for the time being, he circled around to the west side of HQ, where a stolen airship was waiting to transport him to Menagerie.

Ilia entered the main hall, but Sienna Khan wasn't present on the High Leader's Throne. For a moment she began to wonder what the High Leader was doing, but as the re-purposed airship lifted off and began heading south, she realized.

Now she not only had to wait even longer to deliver her report, but she also had to keep this information on the down low. Taurus was something of a divisive member of the Fang, given his extreme outlook concerning the Faunus' cause, but this...

'_No, no, focus on hiding this first._' Her room at HQ should still be relatively safe, and if need be she'd find other places to stash away this information.

Chapter 15- Complete


	16. Chapter 16

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 16: Revelations, Part 1

Deep within the recesses of Nelius's heart, his munsell-eyed doppelganger was still floored by the recent actions taken. Its skin had mostly healed over, albeit with plenty of scars still displaying the underlying muscle tissue.

"W..why..." It barely managed to cough up an attempt at a question, faint wisps of smoke trailing from its mouth each time.

"_**Now do you see?**_" To the doppelganger's consternation, Belderiver could be seen walking up to it. "_**Your plan was fated to fail from the start. You very clearly don't know him as well as I.**_"

"Sh-shut it..." It tried to get up, but each and every scar and muscle protested the thought of moving, keeping the doppelganger from being able to follow through with its attempt. Much as it wanted to ditch this form and revert back to the beast, it knew that doing so would result in even worse injury. "If... if you're here to... gloat, then... g-get on with it."

"_**Far from it. You wanted to know why my soul-host doesn't tread the usual demonic path? Then I shall show you one reason why.**_"

With that, Belderiver made a gesture with its right hand, and at once the surrounding destroyed town faded away, only to then settle on an old memory.

A young Nelius was seen in the middle of training with his father, the green-haired demon. The two of them were seen practicing magic out in an area several miles away from the Midnight Town.

"_**Take a good look at his father... he carries something that most others do not.**_"

The doppelganger strained its eyesight to view the scene playing out before it. So far, it hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary, up until both father and son had spread their wings to begin working on aerial combat. While Nelius's wings appeared to extend more outwards from his back, his father's wings looked to droop downwards slightly... and unless it was still delerious from taking a Big Bang to the stomach, there appeared to be a significant difference in their structure as well.

"...those wings... they're... different."

"_**Indeed. Now, exhibit two.**_" The memory shifted away, only to return to a different time. Nelius and his father were practicing magic once more, only this time the two of them were seen in a far different field, surrounded by a few other demons of the Netherworld.

Nelius's father had his hands outstretched, palms facing toward a Female Warrior with one hell of a nasty gouge in her side. As her skin and muscle began to regrow and knit together, Nelius could be seen observing his father's casting method, and begin to weave together his own Healing spell.

However, one could see a difference in the casting method. Nelius had begun to use the Healing magic spell commonly spread throughout the Netherworld thanks to the Healers, his father was using something completely different, the healing power of his technique seemingly coming from within.

"Hold a moment... was that..." The doppelganger was quickly catching onto something. "Not a usual spell... that was innate?"

"_**And we have a winner.**_" Belderiver dispelled the memory, returning them back to the Midnight Town, which was still fairly damaged. "_**Now, use your brain for this one... if you really have been paying attention, then what sort of being has both those kinds of wings and innate healing ability?**_"

The doppelganger's eyes widened slightly as realization began to set in.

**Vale, The Base**

**Tuesday, September 20, 10:42 A.M.**

Nelius carefully placed the Dual Diver within a travel case he had purchased late the other night, making certain to remove the Dust Crystal and place it within its own compartment to prevent jostling. Once both were snugly fit into the case, he closed it up and locked it before picking it up by the handle to test for any issues, namely anything coming loose.

"Looking good." Making certain everything else had been shut down and had their Dust Crystals removed, Nelius finished preparations for his trip up to Beacon Academy. "That's everything. Time to get going."

Case in-hand, he exited out the side door of the house and quickly made his way towards the heart of Vale. Entering into the Residential District, he headed a bit further north before heading east. Up ahead after about fifteen minutes of walking, a port could be seen where several Bullheads and other ships were on stand-by, ready to take visitors and students up to Beacon Academy.

'_No path to just walk up there?_' Nelius took a moment to look around.

'_Hmm... from here I don't see any walking paths. Too bad there's people around, otherwise I'd just jump it._' Seeing few other options to reach Beacon, Nelius ultimately decided to head over to the ships, which were busy loading up other people.

From the assortment of people loading onto the ships, it seemed to be a mixture of students and civilians. He tried to find a ship that was relatively light on passengers.

One of the pilots was working with the port crew, finalizing a double-check over the equipment and state of his ship. He could hear some idle chatter about how this Vytal Festival was had several more attendees compared to when it was held in Vale eight years ago.

There was another ship that was looking relatively light on passenger load, so Nelius decided to take it. A few others ahead of him were also able to get onto the ship with relative ease, and he proved no different, able to get a seat for himself with no fuss, his case not even drawing any stares.

About three minutes later, the ship shuddered slightly as it began to take off for Beacon.

'_Security seems a bit lax, especially for a gathering like this..._'

'_It'd explain how Cinder and her cohorts were able to get in undetected. Either way, we're here to get more details._'

"Oh. Wasn't expecting to see you again." Looking up from his thoughts, Nelius's eye met those of a familiar-looking young man clad in green and brown.

"Hm?" It took Nelius a moment for it to click. "Ah, from the clothing store. Don't think I caught your name back then..."

"Um, Yatsu? Who's this?" The soft voice of a female caught Nelius's attention, drawing his gaze to a young brunette woman whom was sitting next to the one identified as Yatsu. She was clad in a short, long-sleeved brown jacket with a golden zipper, brown shorts with golden detail and black leggings. Beneath her jacket was a black, semi-translucent undershirt, along with golden spaulders and vambraces on both arms, as well as a matching belt.

However, the most distinguishing feature was a pair of rabbit ears that, aside from matching her hair, extended several inches from the top of her head, identifying her as a Faunus.

"Remember last year when Coco designated me as her pack mule for the costume party?" Though he was trying to keep the tone light, there was a slight undertone of irritation in his voice.

"Oh, I remember all right... Coco kept me awake for hours helping her get the costumes '_just right_', as she put it."

"That was when he and I crossed paths." Nelius answered in turn. "He helped point me in the right direction. Nothing life-altering, if that's your concern."

"I see." Her eyes quickly flicked down to see the case he had brought. "So what brings you out to Beacon, anyway?"

"Business with the Headmaster. He wanted a follow-up on something that went down around two weeks ago."

"Ah."

The rest of the ride was spent in relative silence, aside from the chatter of the other passengers. Several minutes passed by before the ship landed at Beacon's port, and everyone on-board began to shuffle off.

'_Whoa..._' Epsilon found herself a bit star-struck as Nelius stepped off the ship, taking in a much closer look at the campus as a whole. '_I've seen images of this place on the Scroll, but seeing it up close is something completely different._'

'_Looks kind of like a repurposed castle. Probably happened long after the Great War._'

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" The brown-eared rabbit Faunus piped up as she disembarked with her teammate. "Headmaster Ozpin's office is in the central spire, also where our CCT is located." She pointed to the tallest tower Beacon had. "There's an elevator in the central building that'll take you up."

"Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be on my way, then." Politely bidding them farewell, Nelius set off.

It was a relatively straight shot towards the tallest spire, which from this distance also had the appearance of acting as a clock tower, the time reading 11:32 A.M. As Nelius made his way towards Ozpin's office, he took a moment to look around at whomever else was out and about this day.

Over on his right he could see a few students here and there taking a moment to enjoy the good weather, a couple of them doing a double-take on seeing this new presence before returning to whatever activity they were engaged in with their cohorts. On his left, though, as he prepared to pass by the fountain display-

"Zwei, stoooop!" A blonde-haired young man dressed in what looked to be white armor worn over a black hoodie and blue jeans was busy trying to chase down a small dog, a breed of Corgi if its body structure and tail were any indicator. The black and white pooch appeared to be having the time of its life as it outsped the blonde, whom fruitlessly called for it to stop running away from him.

'_Pet troubles, eh... never would've imagined this place allowed for 'em._'

'_Hang on a second... wasn't that pooch also seen when that train car poked up from beneath the center of town?_'

'_You mean the whole "Breach" incident... come to think of it, I believe that one is the very same... what purpose did a Corgi serve down there, anyhow?_'

The blonde was eventually forced to slow to a stop, hunching over in sheer exhaustion as he tried to catch his breath. The Corgi, Zwei as it was apparently named, slowed to a stop as it took notice of Nelius. It began to approach him, and Nelius was content to remain still and allow the canine to sate its curiosity.

The tiny dog sniffed at his right leg, before circling around to sniff at his left. After about twenty seconds of this, it sat down and looked up at him, as if expecting something.

"Friendly little thing, aren't you?" Nelius reached a hand down to scratch behind the dog's ears, but Zwei suddenly perked up, as if sensing something, and got to its feet to make a mad dash away when an orange-haired girl dressed in white and pink suddenly lept out of the blue to try and catch it. Although she had missed, she was back up on her feet and proving very quickly able to keep pace with the pooch far better than her blonde compatriot.

"This... last time... I pet-sit for Ruby..." The blonde student managed to gasp out between breaths. "All yours... Nora..." He eventually flopped down onto a bench with a groan.

"Righty-o, Fearless Leader!" The girl known as Nora continued her pursuit of the tricolor Corgi.

'_I envy neither that guy, nor whomever that dog belongs to._'

At the same time in Vale's Commercial District, Ruby Rose let loose one hell of a sneeze, drawing a concerned glance from her older half-sister.

With that distraction over and done with, Nelius continued heading forward. Passing the Main Ceremony Hall, he headed into Administrations. There were a number of people here, but his goal was to shortcut through and reach the central spire.

As he headed through towards the center of Beacon, he once again had that feeling of being watched, but wasn't fully able to discern who or what was causing the feeling, ultimately causing him to dismiss it for the moment being. It was probably one of the staff members wondering who he was.

Either way, he made it to the central spire, and entered.

A couple of students were seen hanging out here, Scrolls in-hand, whilst a few other people were using the terminals in the center of the room to search up information. One or two of the students might've spared a glance at this new figure, but ultimately focused their attention back on their personal matters. Sighting an open elevator to his right, he took it.

As he set his case down, the elevator doors closed. He prepared to get out his Scroll to send a message to Ozpin...

"Hello." A woman's voice emanated from a speaker next to the floor selection buttons. "Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"

"I'm here to speak with Headmaster Ozpin. I'd like to be taken up to his office, please." There was a moment of silence before he got a response.

"Could you please hold your Scroll up to the Terminal to verify your identity?" Reaching into his coat, Nelius produced his Scroll and held it up. After a moment or two...

"Thank you, Mr. Raoul. Headmaster Ozpin has been expecting you." The elevator car began its ascent as Nelius put his Scroll away.

Unbeknownst to either party, something had slipped in...

**Several Universes Away**

**Random Netherworld, unknown time**

"Well, that's everyone back home who wanted to go." At the helm of a massive violet-colored ship with multiple guns on its exterior was a black-haired woman with red eyes. She was dressed in a red shirt striped with dark blue vertical lines, a miniskirt, and a borderline black coat that reached all the way down to her ankles. She was in the middle of cleaning her glasses. "Hey York. How're things looking back there?"

"A hell of a lot better than when were stranded on that world, dood!" A semi-high pitched voice responded back over the intercom. "This baby was in desperate need of repair and upgrades, no thanks to Kurosugi running it into the dirt, dood."

"Overall status?"

"Overall it's gonna take a bit longer to get everything installed, but once it's ready you'll be the first to know, dood."

"Good. If anything else is needed, you know to contact me." Closing communications with York, the demon woman double-checked the on-board systems, looking for any anomalies.

A beep from the communications caught her attention, and so she opened the channel.

"Mita, how're things with the Yoshitsuna?" A man's voice asked.

"Hey Raph. York's getting pretty close to completion. What about your end of things?"

"Michael and Aliya are safely back in Celestia. Is there anyone else who's planning to come with us for the search?"

"Right now, it's mostly Zio, Brutus and York. Farris said she was taking Stonewall to see a friend of hers before she came back to join. I believe Cordelia and Hilde are out grabbing supplies before we set off."

"Understood. I'll be there shortly." The channel closed, and Mita took one final look over the ship's computer systems, seeing no anomalies thus far.

'_Hm, might want at least two more people for this... if I could get a hold of Atreya again she'd be on the list without a doubt._'

Well, now was the opportunity to toss out a few lines and see if she could hire some people.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**Time Unknown**

"A Fallen Angel?... that is why he... he refuses to act like the others?"

"_**One part, yes.**_" Belderiver took a seat upon a lower-hanging branch, eyes still focused on the doppelganger of his host. "_**One part teachings from his parents, an admittedly curious paring... another part teachings from others in what **__**not**__** to do.**_"

"...what?"

The Midnight area faded away once more, to reveal the interior of the Overlord's Castle. Among a throng of other vassals, Nelius could be seen, anxiously awaiting the return of the Overlord.

"_**I still know not what happened during that week...The Overlord, Sirea, had made mention of wanting to investigate a new area that had caught the eye of the Dimensional Gatekeeper. Armed with many of her best vassals, the others remaining behind to keep tabs on matters back home, she set off.**_"

A swirling, light blue vortex opened up near one area of the main foyer, and out stepped a demon woman whom stood just under half a foot taller than young Nelius at the time. Messy dark blue hair nearly obscured her crimson-colored eyes, and for her height she was packing a fair bit of muscle tone, all the better to make use of her blade. Her outfit was one more made for battle, a custom set of light armor that allowed for both mobility and protection. A pair of horns curled forward from her temples.

"_**When she had returned, all seemed well for a while... but then things went south.**_"

Small snapshots of long-buried memories flashed by, showing a gradual progression of Sirea going from benevolent and helpful, albeit with a tone of teaching the other how to solve an issue, to tyrranical and cynical, with such being reflected in her face, hardening and sharpening into something manaical.

"_**It was as if the Overlord my host had sworn himself to had perished in that trip, and what returned was but a monster wearing her skin.**_"

One particular memory cropped up. A trio of vassals had found the courage to finally speak up on the Overlord's sudden change of heart. They pleaded with her, trying to find what had hardened her heart and soured her outlook.

The last thing they had seen was a disappointed look from their Overlord... before they were messily slain. Sirea didn't even look to have a smidge of guilt as she sat back down and gave the order for several Prinnies to clean up the resulting mess.

"_**That incident was what kicked off his mission to get out of there, and in turn it was what lead to our existence. He knew that remaining there was no longer an option, especially if she were to catch wind of his plan.**_"

The memory faded away, and soon the Midnight Area reappeared all around them.

"...so that is why... such a strange demon I've awoken to..."

"_**There is much more to the story, but that is the basic gist of things.**_" Belderiver hopped down, strolling over towards the doppelganger. "_**Yet at the same time, if the chaotic power that shaped you could be turned towards other ends...**_"

"What are you getting at?"

"_**Soon enough, I will disappear into his subconscious, and you may follow suit. That which shaped you could be an immense boon to him and those he considers allies, but only if you are willing to take that step, and show him how to take this curse intended to kill us... and make it into something all our own.**_"

The doppelganger was silent. Such an idea had never once come to the forefront.

"How... how do you know this? Why are you so confident, full of hope? Why..."

"_**I am what he was supposed to become, but the events thus far have thrown such off the rails. At the same time, it doesn't mean our projected course must end in a crash... indeed, we now stand at a brand-new set of paths, but to make this our own, to turn that curse into a powerful boon, we must align in all aspects. You must ask yourself now... are you willing to align?**_"

**Vale, Beacon Academy**

**11:51 A.M.**

The elevator doors opened up as Nelius stepped forth, case in hand. The doors closed behind him as the car began heading back down. He brought his Scroll up to the office door to request access, but it immediately opened, and greeting him were Ozpin, Glynda, and Ironwood.

"Welcome, Mr. Raoul. As soon as our last person gets here, we can begin." Ozpin welcomed the tall demon in, and as he entered the room, he could see the multiple gears working to keep the clock outside ticking.

Nelius set the case down, put his Scroll away, and set to waiting for their last character to show up.

About two minutes later, the elevator opened back up, and out walked someone familiar to the pair.

'_Hey, it's that Qrow-guy._'

'_So he's also working with Ozpin._' Almost as if hearing his thoughts, Qrow turned to look over at the new face in the room.

"So this is the guy, Oz?" As Qrow looked over to Nelius, an almost-imperceptible look of recognition flashed over his face before settling back to neutral.

"Indeed, Qrow, this is Mr. Nelius Raoul. Mr. Raoul, Qrow Branwen."

"To business, then?" Nelius spoke up.

"To business... but first..." Ozpin gestured to Nelius. "I think it prudent we all get on the same page. Mr. Raoul, care to fill Qrow in on a little something?"

"Eh?" It was Qrow's turn to look a little confused.

"Oh, right... this little plot twist." Nelius reached up and undid his eye patch, choosing to keep it held in his hand rather than pocket it. For about three seconds Qrow got to see a hollow eye socket with a glowing orange dot floating in darkness... before said darkness flowed outwards to coat Nelius's entire body, turning him into a figure Qrow had been expecting the least.

"_**Greetings again, Mr. Branwen.**_" For a brief moment Belderiver stood before them all, before the darkness receded back into his eye socket, and Nelius Raoul stood before him once more.

Qrow, for the most part, was stunned silent. He'd already thought his eyes were playing tricks on him last year, but to see this happening now... at first he thought maybe his new liquor was a lot stronger than it lead on to be.

"Yeah, that was me last year." Nelius reapplied his eye patch. "So we don't have to dance around the subject about Cinder trying to steal the magic that Amber has."

"Speaking of which..." Ozpin made an attempt to steer the conversation towards what was on his mind. "Mr. Raoul, in your time here on Remnant, what have you observed about the Grimm?"

"Aside from what the records and testimonies of others mentioned? Mostly that it seems these smoke monsters are always cropping up somewhere. Slice several down and more come to take their place... you'd think someone or something was constantly churning them out to harass everyone."

"And while we're on the subject-" Epsilon spoke up from within Nelius's left arm, appearing before everyone through a holographic projection. "...how was Cinder able to command that insect to work for her?"

"Geez, how many other "plot twists" you got?" Qrow was still processing that strange, Grimm-like form, and now this guy has some kinda AI living in his arm?

"A whole host, but it'd take me a fair while to lay them all out." Nelius answered back. "Anyway, Ozpin... Epsilon has a good point. Last I checked, Grimm consider humans and Faunus as walking snacks, so why would one be in a human's service?"

Ozpin mentally sighed. Inwardly, he had known this moment was coming. All he could hope now was that Nelius wouldn't turn on him, as many others had. He just needed to choose his words carefully...

"Miss Epsilon isn't wrong. Normally, the Grimm are more than content to feast upon this world's denizens... but the Grimm do indeed have a master, one whom took the position..." Ozpin took a moment to take another swig of his drink, before continuing. "...and one I'm personally sworn to deal with."

"How so?" It was this simple inquiry from Epsilon that made Ozpin pour another drink, as the Headmaster knew he was going to need it to get through this particularly sore spot. However, before he could answer, something began to ping desperately from within Nelius's case.

"Hm?" Ironwood had been the first to look at the case Nelius had brought. "What did you bring?"

"Just the Dual Diver, since I was planning on giving a demonstration of it... but I already took out its power source before I brought it up." Opening the case, the Dual Diver could be seen by all in the room as Nelius extracted the machine to figure out what was causing the sound. "Maybe it was residual charge from the Dust Crystal I was using?"

He rotated the machine around to check the control panel, but it was completely blank. At that, he began to look over the case... maybe something got loose?

Without warning, the Dual Diver came alive, the control panel reading "Destination Set", and in less than a second everyone present in the room was transported elsewhere.

**Unknown Space**

**Time Unknown**

The first thing Nelius was able to register the moment his senses came back was white.

A lot of white.

"Ozpin? Qrow? General Ironwood?" Only the echo of his voice answered him. It felt as though he were stranded in a void, albeit one color-inverted from what he had been used to. "Hey, Epsilon, you're seeing this as well, yeah?"

"Without a doubt... this is weird, even by our standards."

"Headmaster? James?" Glynda had found herself in a different part of this void, but still tried to find the others.

"Oz, Jimmy?" It was Qrow's turn to try and find the others.

"Welcome." A calm voice greeted the entire group. It seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"...Ozpin?" Both James and Glynda had locked onto the voice sounding familiar, but it took Qrow a moment to make the connection.

"In a way... yes, and no."

Suddenly the void began to fade away, and now surrounding them was what looked like Vale, but much, much less advanced. Gone were the cars and high-rise buildings, and replacing the pavement was stone-lined roads. The sky was set in sunset.

However, the environment was muted, in drab colors, as if the place had all color washed away a long time ago. In an instant, everyone found themselves in what looked like the main square of the town. Someone stood there, as if waiting for them.

This new character appeared to be a man with tanned skin, unkempt brown hair and brown eyes. He wore a blue-green tunic with a tan undershirt, a blue cape and black trousers with brown boots. His tunic and cape shared golden markings, metal armor held by brown belts and straps over it. Ornamental patterns adorned the armor. In his right hand was an ornate brown staff with metal details and adorned at its top with a large emerald, roughly the size of someone's fist, give or take a few inches. The floral pattern running the length of the wood, from what could be seen, seemed familiar to Glynda.

"Who..." Glynda was increasingly wary of this character, despite his seemingly less than threatening stance.

"Someone... whom has grown tired over a long time." He spoke in a quiet, yet almost strained kind of voice. "Please, this way."

"Where is Ozpin?" James got right to the heart of the matter. He was personally cursing his decision to leave his weapon back on the ship that had brought him to Beacon today for the meeting.

"In a simple sense, all around us." This response didn't sit very well with Ironwood, but before he could voice his displeasure the new figure continued. "In a complicated sense..." He pointed with his staff towards a building in the distance, one that looked way too familiar to everyone involved. "There, having to relive one of his worst memories."

"Hey, is that..." It was Epsilon's turn to connect the dots.

"Come. This way." With that, he began leading everyone towards the destination he had in mind. "Everything will be revealed there."

The group followed this man, each of their own minds wondering what was going to be revealed.

**Atlas Transport Ship**

**12:09 P.M.**

"...signal unresponsive?" One of the pilots of the ship frowned, unable to get in contact with General Ironwood.

"Maybe his Scroll is off? The General did say he had an important meeting with Beacon's Headmaster." One of the other soldiers piped up.

"No way. He'd always have it set on standby, in-case important messages came in... like the one we're trying to patch through. Is the CCT down for repairs?" At that, one of the other soldiers brought their Scroll up.

"No, I'm connected." At that, the pilot switched communications channels, re-opening a call that had come in just a few minutes ago.

"Apologies, Miss Amber, but we may be waiting a little while longer."

"Had a feeling that'd be the case. Call me back when things are patched through?"

"Fair enough."

At the other side of this call, in a small abode in Atlas, Amber fiddled with her staff as she listened to the Atlesian Forces discuss Ironwood's current unreachable status before the call went on mute again. As lovely as Atlas was, the place simply proved a touch too cold for her liking. Even with some new, thicker apparel to combat the cold, she was getting a little antsy to get away from Atlas.

As she waited for the call to come back, she thought back to last year, when that woman in red and her two associates attacked her out of the blue. It was only through the fortune of fate that something saw fit to intervene and save her life... she didn't want to dwell any further on what that insect was going to do to her.

'_Belderiver, it called itself... what is that creature's motive?_' Grateful as she was for its rescue, something that did indeed cloak itself in half the colors of the Grimm was something in dire need of figuring out.

All she could hope was that it was benevolent through and through. Maybe she was entertaining a pipe dream at best, but if it was strong and skilled enough to fend them all off, then perhaps it'd be willing to part with some combat pointers? The first part of that would be hoping it hadn't already moved onto another area by now.

**Location Unknown**

**Unknown Time**

Down the halls of an elaborate, luxurious castle the group traveled, following the man in armor. Glynda and Qrow were already beginning to get the feeling they had seen this place before.

"It was through these halls I once walked... back during a time since lost."

A scene began to play out in front of the group. The armored man strode through the halls, several guards making their way towards him, swords drawn. Nelius held his hand out, and as one of the guards passed through it, this confirmed his suspicion.

"Back in those times... I was what many called a hero, someone whom righted wrongs and challenged tyrants... never for any reward, but to free the people from oppression."

With blinding speed and swift, fluid movement, the armored brunette easily dispatched the soldiers. It was as child's play for him to parry each sword swing, use the sharpened tip of his staff to exploit an opening and disable his foes, and when push came to shove, he pointed the emerald of his staff at the remaining guard...

"...was that magic?!" Epsilon nearly burst out loud as the brunette launched a blast of energy at a knight in ebony armor, the energy effortlessly knocking the knight off its feet and onto the ground, where it didn't get back up.

"Indeed it is. There was a time when even the common folk could use this gift."

The group was lead up through a tower, where another scene played out, this time of the armored brunette finding a door that appeared to have no real handle to open it.

"I had come to this region after hearing of a cruel, spiteful leader that had locked their daughter away in this tower. The rumor of the time was that her magical potential could surpass that of the ruling family, so to keep her from realizing such and inciting a rebellion, she had been locked away in this tower, her sense of self-being and self-confidence purposefully eroded to keep her passive."

"This is all well and good..." Nelius began, "..but I thought we were being sent to see Ozpin."

The armored man opened the door to the room, which had no handle and a lock on the interior, and inside was a rather spartan amount of furnishings - a bed, a dressing table with a vanity mirror... and two occupants.

The first of them was a rather breathtaking young woman with fair skin, pale platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes. The majority of her long hair had been put up in a half up-done bun style, with a small, simple bun on the top, and the remainder hanging at the bottom. Most of her bangs were tied back, barring several large locks framing her face to her left.

She was clad in a white, two piece dress consisting of a sleeveless, diagonally overlapping white backless pleated top with a raised, pale blue halter-top square collar adorned with an aquamarine colored rhombus-shaped crystal on the clavicle, surrounded by two smaller white rhombuses. Her long, high-waisted skirt was white with a faint purple tint - adorned with white diamond emblems and white wavy lines near the bottom hem, ruffled around the waist and completed with a purple sash. For accessories, she had on gray, circular earrings and a pair of dull brown bracers, and her long fingernails were painted a pale lilac.

"Whoa..." Qrow couldn't help but notice that she was rather good-looking.

The scene continued playing out, as the brunette man offered up his hand to lead the blonde out of this tower and to a new life. She accepted such, and the two began to leave.

"Ozpin!" James, however, proved much less distracted, and sighted the headmaster grimly looking out the tower window. "Where are we?"

"I told you..." The brunette man from before spoke up. "We are within him." James turned to meet the man.

"Explain how."

"Guess it's my turn to explain, then." Nelius spoke up, catching their attention. "The Dual Diver, that machine I had in the case, got its name for a reason - one part was to conduct Item Dives, the ability to improve one's equipment from within. The other part was to delve within one's own soul, their heart, to confront problems of the mind and resolve them... which is where we are right now."

"...what you just described sounds utterly ridiculous."

"Yet here we are, General." Nelius made a sweeping motion.

James wanted to respond to that, but nothing he formulated would come close to a response. He would remember this for later.

"Anyway, that places us inside Ozpin's heart." He turned his attention to the armored man. "I'd ask how you were able to make the Dual Diver work without a power source, but that can wait for later." Inwardly, he thought about how he needed to ask Belderiver something similar. "So what does that make you?"

"A simple question, with a complicated answer. I'm certain those three-" The brunette man gestured to Glynda, Ironwood and Qrow, "-already know the answer, as he has told them. But with you, this is a proper introduction."

To that, the armored man set his staff out of front of himself, hands clasped together overtop the emerald.

"My name... is Ozma, the first of many incarnations Headmaster Ozpin has taken."

"Then who was the blonde chick, and why does Ozpin look like he's gonna hurl chunks at thinking of her?" Epsilon piped up, equally curious as to why the blonde seemed to be linked to any kind of horrible memory for the Headmaster.

"She... she was our first love... the imprisoned girl called Salem." Ozpin spoke up, taking over for Ozma.

"Our first love... and also our eternal enemy."

Chapter 16 - Complete


	17. Chapter 17

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 17: Revelations, Part 2

"Hm, this ought to be more than enough." Back at the site of Merlot's former island hideaway, the man with the mustache had returned for one last salvage attempt. More of Merlot's computer systems had been reclaimed, and with them he headed back to the Bullhead, placing the components in a secured container.

"Might need Hazel to come with me for the rest." The interior was more or less close to carrying capacity with just the computer equipment... it'd be multiple trips more to gather up anything else of value.

Double-checking to make certain everything was securely in place, he got into the pilot's seat and started the aircraft up. Within seconds he was up and off towards the place designated as headquarters.

**Ozpin's Heart**

**Unknown Time**

"Wait a damn minute!" Qrow exclaimed. "That was Salem?! She looks nothing like what Oz showed us about her!"

Glynda remembered all too well what Salem was supposed to look like, but the difference between this memory and what she knew was quite the contrast.

"Here." The surroundings faded away, to show a small collection of different memories as Ozma touched the jewel upon his staff to the wall.

"_After escaping that kingdom, Salem and I went on a myriad of adventures to various places across the land, righting any known wrongs and generally seeing what else the world had to offer... were this any other tale it'd simply end with us fading into myth... but things are never that simple._"

A new memory cropped up. Ozma and Salem were checking through a desert town on the western coast, but Ozma slowed slightly, looking out of breath. When Salem voiced her concern, he waved it off as being slightly winded, quickly catching up with her.

The truth turned out to be worse. As Ozma went to check in at a small traveler's hotel a few hours later as the sun was beginning to set, he suddenly crumpled, a hand going to his chest in panic as pain shot through his torso. Salem was at his side at a moment's notice.

"_What I had learned too late was that a new plague had been sweeping the region, a deadly disease that cannibalized the heart and lungs of its victims. It felt as though you were being slowly devoured from the inside-out, a fate far worse than what any Grimm could do to you._"

Ozma was laid up in bed in a local clinic, his pained expression saying everything about his condition. Salem refused to move from his side, even when it seemed likely she could've caught the same virus from him. She held onto his hand until the very end. He wanted to say something, anything, but it was taking everything he had and then some to stay conscious.

Tears were flowing down Salem's face... the last visage he would see as his life expired. The memory quickly faded from view.

"_Sadly, for all of the doctor's best efforts, the virus won out, and I perished... but what happened next was still one of the most frightening experiences I ever had, something I wouldn't wish on even my worst foe._"

The next time Ozma opened his eyes, it was with a sharp gasp and intake of air... air he had not breathed in so long. The world that faded into view seemed bleak, devoid of life, and not even the sight of his beloved Salem could keep the panic from welling up. Jagged violet crystals rose up from the earth, many creatures of Grimm were keeping their distance, and a foul stench permeated. The skies above were in permanent overcast, and not even the sun had the power to pierce through the clouds.

"Where am I!? What is this - Where am I-" A clearly terrified Ozma jerked about in abject shock, not quite able to comprehend where or when he was. There was some kind of violet-colored humanoid, whom appeared to be made of darkness, with curled horns coming from its temples standing a small ways away, which only served to further aggravate his growing uncertainty.

"Who the..." James felt his hair stand on end just looking at this memory of the horned humanoid. Qrow, however, was trying to think of where he had heard of something fitting that being's description... it was a dead-ringer for a rumor he had heard in passing.

"It's OK." Salem did her best to reassure Ozma as she helped him sit up. "Everything's going to be OK."

"_Sadly... things got worse._" Ozma narrated, a tone of regret in his words.

A loud thunder-esque rumbling was heard as a new figure could be seen at the top of the stairs leading into this location. As a sharp contrast to the being that appeared to be made of darkness, this humanoid appeared to be made of light, and had antlers growing from its forehead.

"What have you done?" The being of light spoke in a controlled tone, only keeping some manner of disgust from reaching its words.

"I have done what I please, brother." The being of darkness simply said, approaching the being of light. "You may bask in the powers of creation, but you do not own them."

"This... is not creation."

"Do **NOT** lecture me!" The darkness being's voice dropped multiple octaves as the Grimm grew agitated, many actively starting to consider encroaching upon the being of light. From the stance taken, the being of darkness was more than prepared to attack the other.

"I will do what I must, to maintain order." The light being's arm went up, and it outstretched its palm towards Ozma, whose vision immediately began to fade as a glow surrounded him... as did the view of everyone else.

Only, a few seconds later, he found himself back in Salem's lap, the view of the surrounding world snapping back into focus. Before he even had a chance to realize what was going on...

"I am abiding by the rules we agreed upon." The being of light continued... at least, from Ozma's point of view. Its tone was steely and controlled, but only less so than before. What did they miss?

"Rules that I now see work ever in your favor." The darkness being stomped towards his brother, his body beginning to contort in frankly horrifying ways as the horns became more pronounced and tattered, batlike wings began to sprout from its back. "_**And yet the day a mortal comes to pray at my feet before your own-**_" As his hands hit the ground, he became shrouded in a veil of dark mist, "_**-so do you arrive to lay your judgment upon me!**_"

The darkness being had transformed himself into a large quadrupedal dragon, a sight of which had the outside viewers feeling particularly on-edge. Nelius in particular had to stop himself from sliding into his usual fighting stance, reminding himself that this was a memory.

With a single roar, the draconic being commanded the Grimm to attack.

The Grimm leapt forward, intent on devouring the being of light, but with a simple flash all of the Grimm in the area vanished into nothingness, as the being of light revealed himself to be a large dragon as well, but in another contrast to his brother, he had taken the form of a serpentine-style dragon whilst retaining the antlers. His eyes could be faintly seen glinting with an almost metallic sheen as he regarded his brother.

'_Wait, was that..._' Epsilon had to do a double-take, apparently seeing something.

"_I know we have our differences, but I have not come here with the aim to control you._" The light dragon spoke with a calm, even tone. "_The same, however, cannot be said for her. This woman only came to you after I denied her pleas._"

'_...she tried to play these two?_' Nelius was fast catching onto something.

"_Pleas that would have disrupted the balance that you and I created... together._"

"_**...then it seems I owe you an apology. Allow me to correct my mistake.**_" With a massive blast of dark energy from his mouth, Ozma was rendered no more, the memory fading just as quickly before sending everyone back into the tower that once held Salem captive.

"...holy shit." Qrow had been nearly speechless. At first he wanted to ask just what the hell they were, but then it clicked. "Ozma... those were the Two Brothers, weren't they?"

"Indeed they are, Mr. Branwen." Ozma affirmed.

"The Two Brothers, governing Creation and Destruction respectively?" James spoke up. "I'd heard of a few people speaking about them from time to time, but I believed it to be mere superstition at worst."

"First time I've ever heard of these two. What's their story?" Nelius addressed Ozma. '_Seems Remnant has even more mysteries that were buried over the ages._'

"The being of light is the God of Creation, and the being of darkness, the God of Destruction. Creation filled this world with beings of life and prosperity. Destruction, rather predictably, was disgusted by his older brother's work, and so would spend his time trying to destroy it all with plagues, fire, and other methods, but life always seemed to find its way. In an effort to finally turn the tide in his favor, Destruction created the creatures of Grimm to aid him in destroying all of Creation's work."

'_Great, just what I needed to find - another dispute between deities._'

"To finally bring their feud to an end, Creation proposed they both bring into this world beings capable of both creation and destruction, able to gain knowledge and make their own choices."

"Lemme guess, humanity?"

"Precisely, Mr. Raoul."

'_And there it is._'

"To think, such belief had a tangible origin and real history behind it." Ironwood mulled over this, but then a thought crossed his mind. "Hold on. If they are real, then why have they not shown themselves to anyone?"

"That was something I wouldn't learn for the longest time." Ozma admitted. "Some time after my erasure by the God of Destruction, whether it was weeks or years I know not, the God of Creation approached me with an offer."

With a tap of his staff upon the floor, the world once again went white, as the memory of a now armor-less Ozma wandered without purpose. No matter where he looked, everything was the same white void.

"Ozma." The being of light, now identified as the Creation God, appeared before the wandering warrior, reverting from his draconic appearance to its humanoid form.

"Where... am I?"

"We are between realms." The Creation God folded its arms in front of itself. "I'm afraid a... tragedy, has befallen your home at the hands of my brother. We have chosen to depart this world... but in our absence I would like to offer you the chance to return to it."

"I... don't understand. Why?"

"_And rightfully so I didn't understand at the time..._" Ozma narrated. "_After a revival, destruction, and then a repeat I had come to know that undoing death was explicitly forbidden._"

'_When it comes to natural deaths, maybe..._' Nelius thought to himself.

"Mankind is no more." The god explained, something that hit the memory viewers native to Remnant like something akin to a punch to the chest. "Yet your world remains, and in time your kind will grow to walk its face once again. However, without our presence they will be but a fraction of what they once were."

The God held out its hands, and at once four familiar objects began to appear.

"Creation-" An ornate staff appeared, one that made James' eyes widen with recognition.

"Destruction-" A sword appeared next, one with a lovingly crafted cross-guard.

"Choice-" A wondrous crown faded into existence afterwards...

"...and Knowledge." Finally, a large lantern-shaped lamp was formed.

"These were the ideals upon which Humanity was made. Now, I leave them behind with the hope that you may learn to remake yourselves."

The four objects were combined into a glowing ball of light.

"When these are brought together, these four Relics will summon my brother and I back to your world... and humanity will be judged."

Ozma was only now beginning to understand the ramifications of taking this offer.

"If your kind has learned to live in harmony with one another and set aside their differences, then we shall once again live among you... and humanity will be made whole again... but if your kind is unchanged, demanding our blessings while still fighting among yourselves... then man will be found irredeemable and your world will be wiped from existence."

The memory viewers felt their blood run cold upon hearing this ultimatum in full.

'_Something ain't right about this deal. That bastard's hiding something._' Nelius narrowed his eye as he thought about this ultimatum.

"Until your task is complete, you will reincarnate... but in a manner ensuring you are never alone." It was about ten seconds before Ozma responded.

"I apologize, but... that kind of world just isn't as dear to me without her." Ozma admitted, his gaze on his own feet. "If I may, I'd rather return to the afterlife to see Salem."

"You will not find her there." These six words sent a shock to Ozma, whose head immediately snapped up to look at Creation.

"You mean... she isn't gone?" He could barely believe what he was hearing.

"Salem lives... but the woman you hold dear in your memories is gone. Heed this warning - where you seek comfort, you will only find pain."

"_At that time..._" Ozpin's voice finally broke the silence, and everyone turned their attention to see the normally unflappable Headmaster looking... vulnerable, broken, a completely marked change from how they had known him. "_I had foolishly imagined that Salem too had reincarnated, and even if she lacked the memories of those times gone by I wanted to see her once more... it was through such folly that I accepted the God of Creation's offer._"

"Very well. Our creation rests within your hands." With the offer accepted, Creation worked its powers to begin the process.

"_Then, I was reborn._" Ozpin finally managed to choke up. "_But it was not in a manner that I had imagined. When my consciousness came to..._"

The memory shifted to a wooded area at night. A white-haired man in a white tanktop and brown pants was holding a pitchfork in his gloved hands, having just used the farming tool to impale a now dissolving Grimm in its chest. Ozma's consciousness awoke within this man, and he had little time to adjust to his situation.

A nearby village was awash in flames, its inhabitants forced to flee into the night from the attacking Grimm.

One of the villagers was trying to fend off a Beowolf with a sword, but the Grimm proved much stronger, knocking the man down and disarming him of his weapon. It was preparing to move in for the kill...

Almost immediately Ozma found himself in control of the man's body, and he ran forward, grabbing the blade, and with two quick slashes and a thrust through its chest, the Grimm lay dead at the blade's end, dissolving away.

"_It was a world I was a stranger to._" Ozpin picked up as the memory showed his new incarnation walking through a ramshackle city unfamiliar to himself. "_The cities were foreign, its inhabitants completely different from what I had known, and alongside humanity there was now the Faunus._"

To that end, multiple Faunus were seen locked up in cages. Some looked to be without hope, others were set with a glare upon their faces, whilst a sparse few were trying to find a way to break free.

'_Did the Creation God make them as well?_' Epsilon was more curious than anything. '_Or did something in this new wave of humanity meet a major hiccup and integrate animal DNA into itself?_'

Multi-colored crystals were on sale at one particular vendor stall.. they looked suspiciously like earlier variants of modern-day Dust Crystals, but also rather unrefined, as though they had been freshly mined.

"_With the gods long gone, magic was a lost art to all but two people... myself, and someone they called The Witch._"

At the outskirts of a far different town, there was a small cottage that looked plainly kept, its front window boarded up.

"_Rumors had circulated through the years about an intensely pale woman residing alone in a small cottage, being occasionally seen through a window at times. She was said to command frightening powers, and all who dared to approach were violently rebuffed. Against my better judgment I went to see this Witch, believing it to be Salem... I wanted to see what had become of her, in this new world._"

Ozma plucked up his courage and approached the cottage. The front door opened when he was several feet away from it... and out walked a woman with alabaster-colored skin and hair in a black outfit lined with red trim. Piercing red eyes upon black sclerae were set in a glare, a glare that immediately began to soften as she took in the features of this visitor... with realization coming to the forefront for them both.

'_That's a rather drastic change... what made her go so pale?_' Epsilon was reviewing everything they'd learned up to this point. There was a whole other side to this story.

**Beacon Academy**

**12:58 P.M.**

"Hmm... Professor Goodwitch isn't here." A violet-haired exchange student from Atlas shifted with a bit of nervousness, not quite used to waiting for the instructor to show up.

Several students were waiting for Goodwitch to show up, as Combat Instruction was soon to begin.

"You think she's out sick?" Another student dressed in white idly asked.

"No way. My cousin's been here two years longer than I have, and he's never seen Goodwitch get sick or call off a class. Maybe she's running late."

"Late? Her?" One other student only barely held back a snort. "It'd have to take one hell of a miracle for that to happen."

"All right, settle down students!" The voice of Professor - erm, Doctor Oobleck caught the class's attention. "As Miss Goodwitch is tied up with other matters at the moment, I will be substituting for this class." Almost immediately there were several voices of protest.

"Now - go get changed and meet me on the floor." He took one final sip of coffee from his thermos, before it expanded into a wicked-looking flamethrower hybrid, which surprised the many first-year students that were more familiar with him as being the rambling History Professor.

Maybe today's Combat Class wouldn't suck after all.

**Ozpin's Heart**

**Unknown Time**

"_Over time, as we reconnected, we shared our respective stories of how we came to be on this world, but neither of us revealed the whole truth, too caught up in our own bliss of reuniting. Salem had blamed the former world's end on the Gods, whilst I kept my task and the Relics a secret. That conversation still played in my mind... despite my happiness, humanity was as divided as ever._"

"Are you surprised?" Salem told Ozma as they shared a drink inside the fixed-up cottage. "This world is literally godless. These humans have nobody to guide them. Perhaps... that's all they need."

"..are you implying-"

"We could become the gods of this world. Our powers surpass all others, our souls transcend death. We can mold these lands into whatever we choose... whatever you choose."

Ozma had to think on this, but Salem continued speaking.

"We could create the paradise that the old gods could never make." She placed a hand on his shoulder, to act as a reinforcement to her reassuring gaze.

"_The hearts of men are easily swayed... and I was no different._" Ozpin finally admitted. "_Salem's idea was infectious, and soon I found myself at her side, playing God and Goddess to this world..._"

At a town besieged by a large Nevermore, the avian Grimm was surrounded in a field of energy, and forcefully contorted into a shape resembling a sphere before being crushed and dissolving away.

Ozma and Salem floated high above, hands interlocked. The people of the town were shocked by the Grimm's sudden destruction, amazed at the powers these two wielded... amazement which soon turned to reverence.

A following quickly amassed behind the pair as they traveled the now godless lands and brought many to their side, and not long afterwards a prosperous Kingdom was soon erected with the pair unanimously considered King and Queen.

News a few years later would confirm Ozma and Salem had four daughters.

James couldn't help but feel as though he had seen these girls somewhere before.

"_But even as the Kingdom prospered and we expanded, something in the back of my mind told me... this wasn't right._" Ozpin spoke back up as the memory began to play out. "_I wanted to bring humanity together, but in a manner like this..._"

Salem was making use of a glass sphere to see her people fighting against those from another kingdom. The battle, if it could be called such, was turning ever so in their favor as the other kingdom racked up heavy losses.

"Are we certain this is right?" Ozma spoke up, looking out one of the windows of their office.

"You said we must unite humanity." Salem responded without a care. "This is the best method - spread our word, and take down those that would deny us."

Ozma felt his resolve wavering even more so. A little voice in the back of his mind practially shouted at him, asking what the hell he was doing.

"This isn't what he asked of me..." He muttered to himself, but not low enough that Salem couldn't hear it.

"What did you say?" She looked over to him, curious as to what he just said. Before he could answer, the doors to the chamber opened up, and their blonde-haired daughter, clad in cerulean colors, burst in with a look of pure excitement upon her face.

"Mother, father, look!" Within her hands, multi-colored sparks encircled them. Magic.

"_What was supposed to be our joyous occasion, our child showing the promise of magic, was cut short. My own guilt weighing upon me, I told Salem everything about the God of Creation's offer... to reunite humanity, and use the Relics to bring them back to judge us._"

"It doesn't matter anymore." Salem dismissed the explanation. "Don't you see? Why bother spending our lives redeeming these humans... when we could replace them with what they could never be?"

"Replace humanity..." James had questions as to how that would've been possible. "Was she intending to breed magic back into them?"

"Sounds more like her plan was to take out dissidents and put her own people there." Epsilon noted. "But... would she be so callous as to use her own daughters for that purpose?"

"_That night, I tried sneaking our daughters out, finally realizing the true extent of Creation's warning... but Salem caught me in the act._"

"Mommy?" One of the children, clad in green and with a slightly darker complexion than her sisters, caught sight of Salem, whom looked none too pleased about what she saw.

Without warning, she launched an orb of red energy at Ozma, whom was forced to counter with a blast from his staff. The two former lovers did battle, mixing magic with melee strikes. The magical backwash gouged out immense holes into the castle from within, and despite Ozma's best attempts at herding the girls away from the battle, they too found themselves caught within the crossfire.

Glynda's heart sank as the daughter clad in pink screamed in utter terror upon finding a chunk of the ceiling crashing down upon her with no way to escape. Death was a known factor on the battlefield, especially against the Grimm, but this... nobody deserved this, especially ones so young.

At the end of it all, Ozma was on the ground, trying to use his arms to crawl to relative safety. One of the attacks from his now former wife had caused some of his ribs to crush his lungs, and he knew that the Grimm would soon be here to capitalize on the aggression. Both of his legs were out of commission, and if the Grimm didn't get to him, the bleeding likely would. There was an old injury kit he kept within the living quarters that he could use.

However, this plan was short-lived, as Salem suddenly appeared, kicking Ozma onto his back, and then stomped on his chest, a glare almost permanently set into her face.

"We finally had freedom." Before Ozma could reply, she incinerated him, cutting the memory short.

'_She just regenerated from all of that?_' Nelius had known of characters having immense healing and regenerative prowess, but to reform from what was essentially ash... yet another detail was missing from this story.

"_From there on, a painful cycle of death and rebirth awaited me. I tried to forget it all, but my mind kept going back to that task... with each incarnation, I had to learn to work with the souls I had been paired with, but no matter where I was reborn, her presence always seemed to loom over everyone._"

Ozma had incarnated into the body of a man with a wife and two children, but outside more Grimm were besieging the town. After a moment to check that the others would be all right, he grabbed a weapon and headed outside to kill the Grimm.

Another incarnation had been putting a masterful cane to work... the same one current-day Ozpin was making use of. He had placed it within a secure vault, only for a new incarnation to unlock the vault and take the cane for their use.

"_Any mortal means would be inefficient, since not even the magic I held onto from the Gods would be enough to end Salem... so with the purpose of finding something stronger I sought out what Creation had left with the world... the Relics. The first one I obtained, the Relic of Knowledge, would help point me to the rest._"

Holding the lantern-like lamp up, this incarnation of Ozpin was a brunette man dressed in a maroon vest with a grey shirt striped with thin lines, matched with dark grey slacks. Resolution in his eyes, he spoke a name.

"Jinn!"

Time around Ozma apparently came to a complete stop as azure-colored smoke flowed out of the lamp, which soon formed into the shape of a woman. Golden manacles encircled her forearms and wrists, the latter of which had chains flowing from them. A small headband made of chains encircled her head, and a golden belt was around her waist. Flowing dark-blue hair only served to accentuate her height, which, by Epsilon's estimates, put her around twelve feet tall, give or take a few inches.

Qrow wasn't quite certain on where to look concerning this being... very little in life prepared one for a blue-skinned, effectively naked woman to appear before oneself. James and Glynda, however, were listening more intently on what Ozma was asking of this Jinn.

"_Through Jinn, I learned of the other Relics' locations and their purposes, with the hopes that I could use them to finally end this. But the last answer I got..._"

"How do I destroy Salem?"

"You cannot." Jinn replied back.

"_...it wasn't to my liking at all._"

With that, the memory ended, and everyone was back at the center of the town, where Jinn's last words still echoed in their minds.

**Several Universes Away**

**Unknown Time**

"Whew, dood.." A green-colored Prinny slid out from beneath the generator of the ship. "That ought to do it."

Getting to its peg legs, the Prinny headed over to the communications panel and opened a channel. "Mita, dood, the generator's fixed up with the new components and ready for a test whenever. That makes everything that needed it taken care of."

"Thanks, York. Take ten while I fire everything up for a test."

"Will do, dood." Closing the channel, York headed to one of the spare rooms, and upon entering flopped onto the bed. '_Gotta look into finding some other personnel to give these old flippers a hand, dood...still got years on my sentence._'

Back up at the bridge, Mita began to test fire the engines and other systems.

The ship seemed to come alive as it began to lift off and up into the sky with even greater ease than the trip that had brought them to this location.

"York, you did a damn good job. No anomalies, everything's coming up green..." Pausing the ship's ascent, she opened a line to York's room. "Hey, it's working!"

"Excellent, dood. Hey, before I forget..."

"Hm?"

"Any chance we can snatch up another mechanic for the ship? It'd help immensely to get an extra set of hands in-case I end up going up in smoke, dood."

"Fair enough. There is an auto-doc system, so we shouldn't have to worry too much about finding a Healer. I'd ask Ada in that case, but she's back home with Vash and her brother."

"Well, ain't like we have to leave right this second, dood. We're still waiting on the others to get back."

"True."

With the testing complete, Mita brought the ship back down to land. While she was waiting for the others to make their return, she began to look into finding some kind of hired help for York.

**Ozpin's Heart**

**Unknown Time**

"...how long, Ozpin..." James finally spoke up after a terse moment. When he didn't get an answer, he began to elaborate. "How long were you shouldering this by yourself?"

"...too long, James." Ozpin sounded drained, as if all the life had been visibly sucked away from him, leaving only a mere shell of a man. "It's an uphill struggle that gets ever steeper with each passing day. Should I stop for even a second, everything threatens to crash back down... across so many incarnations, with so many people I've worked with, I've been trying to find something, _anything_ that will finally bring this endless nightmare to a conclusion!"

Qrow felt more than a little unnerved hearing Ozpin sounding so... exasperated.

"Something doesn't add up, though." Nelius interjected. "How did Salem suddenly recover? You practically turned her into a pile of sludge once the battle was over. Does it relate to her pale complexion and eye change?"

"That..." Ozma lamented, "..was something I'd only learn after my consultation with Jinn a second time."

The town square faded away as the memory of what Jinn told him began to play.

"_Some time after I perished to the plague, Salem had sought out Creation, to ask for my revival._"

Within a small canyon, walled off on all sides save for one point of terrestrial access via a tan set of stone stairs, Salem ascended into an area filled with brilliantly golden-yellow flowers broken up by patches of gray rock. A beautiful fountain lay within, at the back of which is an immense tree with dark gold leaves.

Creation's humanoid form could be seen standing on the waters within the fountain, as Salem made her plea for Ozma to walk the world once more.

"_She had been denied her request, but rather than accepting, she had asked Destruction to resurrect me, and we all saw how that played out. After that particular debacle, the Gods had settled on a punishment for Salem trying to deceive them._"

The God of Creation, still in its draconic form, lashed towards Salem, but not to end her life. Salem had tried to fight back with her magic, but it was for naught, as she was instantly devoured before she even had a chance to react... or so she thought.

The next thing Salem knew, she was rapidly falling from a great height... right towards the waters that surrounded the pedestal and walkway within the Creation God's domain. She screamed in abject terror, unable to right herself or divert her course - if she impacted the ground, from her height it'd be highly unlikely she'd survive the ordeal. Of course, landing in the water wasn't much better, as from her height hitting it would be a painful experience, and given that she had been locked up for most of her life, she never learned how to swim.

She plunged into the waters, where a sheen much like an Aura brought to its breaking point shimmered around her. A moment later, she found herself surfacing, now kneeling on the water's surface as she tried to catch her breath.

The Brothers could be seen standing atop the water as well, having reverted from their draconic forms back to their humanoid states. While Creation had its hands folded out in front, Destruction had folded its hands behind his back.

"When you first came to me, I did pity your plight." Creation stated. "But it is clear now that your arrogance and selfishness have lead you astray."

"What did you do to me?" Getting to her feet, she tried to prepare to face them down. At the same time, she felt... off, knowing that the two gods did something to her.

"You have been made immortal, child."

"Wha..?"

"You cannot die. You cannot be reunited with your loved one." Destruction explained in simple terms.

"So long as this world turns, you shall walk its face." Both gods explained in even further terms.

"Learn the importance of life and death. Only then, may you rest." Creation laid out a specific condition before sending a now-complaining Salem away.

"..Immortality. Why in the name of Magog did those idiots choose that as a punishment?" Nelius, needless to say, was not a fan of what he had seen. "They had to have known this would backfire, even if the intention was to reinforce the whole life and death balance."

Ozma blinked at that statement. For someone to actually call the Gods idiots...

The memory faded away, only to be replaced by a new set. Salem had a sword in her hand, and in one swift motion she impaled herself on the blade, driving it through her heart.

Glynda paled, seeing this. She found herself in disbelief as Salem withdrew the blade, and not even a speck of blood remained on it. Whatever wounds would've been made from the blade piercing through her chest had already closed up within nanoseconds.

"_Salem tried multiple methods to kill herself, so we could reunite._" Ozma explained as Salem could be seen tossing herself from a high cliff, impacting the jagged rocks below... and getting up as though nothing had happened. "_But the Gods had said it plainly - her soul would never leave this world so long as she refused to understand the importance of life and death... but what was supposed to be time to think back on her actions became time for her to try and plot against them._"

"I can almost see why her mind turned to such tactics." Epsilon spoke up. "She managed to get the Gods to argue with one another, proving to herself that even they had blind spots... and then '_cursing_' her with immortality effectively gave her carte blanche to begin her schemes."

"_Quite so._" From here, Salem could be seen going to various kingdoms across the world, requesting audiences with the various kings and other rulers, some of which recognized her from her travels with Ozma. "_She went to the various rulers across the lands, telling them that she had managed to steal immortality from the Gods, and used that as a rallying point to organize humanity against its creators._"

In fact, one display of her immortality had her outright tell several soldiers to attack her. With good reason they proved hesitant, and so Salem merely stole one of their blades and drew the sharp edge across her neck.

The people seeing this proved horrified at first, but when they saw no blood or wound many found themselves amazed by this. Another display in a different kingdom had her once more impale herself, only to show no injury at all. It provided all the proof the rulers needed to believe her story.

Slowly, steadily, she painted a picture of power for these rulers... a day where the Gods' abilities would be their own to use. Never again would they watch their loved ones age and die, and in turn the Gods' powers would make them even greater than before.

However, some kingdoms had flatly turned Salem's proposal down, not wishing to get involved in matters they foresaw going nowhere. Salem had sneered at them, calling them cowards and promising to prove them wrong once the Gods had been taken care of.

"_The hearts of men are easily swayed, this was the only lesson she had learned from her punishment... and so the Day of Reckoning arrived._"

"_Who has lead you all down this path?_" Creation found itself disappointed that the humans that once revered its presence were now intending to wage war against it. Both Brothers had assumed their draconic forms in response to sensing an immense number of mortal lives encroaching on Creation's domain, far too many to simply be a party seeking blessings.

As soon as Salem stepped to the forefront of the army, the Destruction God let out a low growl of irritation. She lead the humans in unleashing a barrage of spells and arrows against the pair... which amounted to nothing as Destruction simply raised one of its forelegs and collected all of the magic and projectiles into a single, violet-black sphere. That was enough to make the human army stop in sheer terror.

"_**My own gift to humanity... used against me.**_" Creation looked away, an amount of regret crossing its draconian face as Destruction simply squeezed the sphere... and as a violet-colored wave washed over the world, humanity was soon turned into dust, sending yet another shock to the memory-viewing crowd.

Salem was the only one remaining, thanks to her immortality. Swirling around her was the dust that was once the humans she had bewitched into following her.

"No... no..."

"_**Did you think there was no greater punishment we could bestow upon you?**_" To this, Salem snarled.

"I'll be back! The rest of the world will know of this massacre! There'll be a new army-"

"_**You refuse to understand. There is no one left.**_" At those words, Salem stopped. "_**You are all that remains of humanity.**_"

'_Even those that refused to accompany her weren't exempt?_' Epsilon found herself plainly furious at these two.

"_This world was something beautiful, but now it is a remnant of what it once was. It seems there is more we must learn. Hopefully you will learn as well, Salem._" With that, Creation disappeared into a cloud of dust.

"No! You can't leave! Come back!"

"_**Still demanding things of your creators... pitiable woman.**_" Destruction left as well, but chose to exit the world through a massive beam of darkness that stretched far into the atmosphere and into space. This beam then shot through the moon, fracturing it and sending it into a spin.

Salem fell to her knees in pure despair, and all she could do was scream as the fragments of the moon soon impacted the planet.

"_Once again, Salem was alone... she cursed those who turned her away, the Gods, the Universe... everything except herself._"

Salem found herself wandering through a now abandoned village, the Creatures of Grimm ransacking it. The Grimm were content to ignore her, somehow knowing that their efforts would be in vain.

"_She was awaiting an end that would never come for her... until her wanderings brought her back to Destruction's Domain, where the beings of Grimm spawned from the oily pools._"

Salem stood atop an outcropping that lay above the largest pool. It bubbled as though boiling, with the occasional Grimm climbing out of it onto dry land to menace the world.

"_If Creation's waters could bestow infinite life, then certainly Destruction's oily pools could revoke it._"

Taking a breath to steel her nerves, she jumped in, plunging into the oily depths.

"_Unfortunately, not even pure destruction could revoke infinite life..._"

Without warning, something seemingly clawed at Salem, and she was thrashed about by an unseen force that tried to tear her body apart, tried to reduce her to nothing more than her base molecules, but the power of immortality denied such an end.

"_Instead, the pools infected her, creating a monster of infinite life, with a burning, insatiable hunger for infinite destruction..._"

Salem clawed her way back out of the pool, her skin and hair now a stark white. Red irises upon black sclerae gazed out at the world.

The girl in the tower had vanished that day.

**Beacon Academy**

**2:12 P.M.**

"..well, this is an issue." Dr. Oobleck had tried once more to contact Ozpin or Glynda, and once again he was met with a "No Signal" reply.

"That's putting it lightly, old friend." Peter Port didn't like this situation either. "Ozpin has never been this quiet before... you don't suspect foul play, do you?"

"I'm certainly hoping this isn't anything dire... honestly, if things continue past the hour I'm planning to head up to his office."

A few floors up, Cinder frowned, having returned to her assigned dorm room from her charade as an exchange student. The signals of Ozpin and his company apparently dropped off the face of Remnant a few hours ago, according to what her Scroll was telling her... but given how the Black Queen Virus was designed, they couldn't have found it so soon, especially since she could still access the whole of Beacon's computer network.

Regardless, any news that showed Ozpin was blind to the virus was good news. Cinder had to continue waiting - the Amity Colosseum was due to arrive within a few weeks, and once its systems were synchronized with Vale's CCT... well, that was where the real fun would begin.

She had around half an hour before she needed to get moving to whatever was the next class... time to try and do some digging.

Chapter 17- Complete


	18. Chapter 18

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 18: Resolutions

"That..." Ozpin stated as the memory faded away and everyone found themselves back in the colorwashed town square, "..that is what I've had to carry across these thousands of years, across countless incarnations. My greatest and most foolish mistake, one that is now condemning humanity as we know it."

"Talk about one hell of a shit deal." Nelius spoke up. "Having to bring all of humanity together whilst that basket-case is opposing you without any kind of reprieve, and under the threat of complete erasure if you're not up to whatever ridiculous standard the Gods have in mind."

"This is some '_Sins of the Ancestors_' bullshit." Epsilon groused. "Why the hell should you be held responsible for someone else's decisions? The humans that rebelled are already dead at their hands, and barely any of those alive now have a connection."

"All the more reason why we meet behind closed doors, to try and find a solution to this." Ozpin grimly mentioned. "If the existence of something like her got out there, the amount of panic it'd generate would make the Grimm go crazy, if not potentially lead people to willingly join her in the hopes of survival."

Nelius had to think on this. Ozpin was not only set against his former lover, but she was made immortal, meaning no amount of regular strength would put her to rest. Adding to that was her dip into the Grimm Pool, infecting her with the ideology of Destruction. At the same time, this answered a number of questions about not just Remnant, but also what he had experienced since his landing here nearly a year ago.

At the same time, Qrow now began to realize why a certain falling out transpired all that time ago. One part of his mind was becoming increasingly furious with the Headmaster for keeping this effectively unwinnable situation a secret. At the same time, another part sympathized with Ozpin, noting how going through so many incarnations would wear down even the hardiest of souls and minds, especially having few to no people to rely upon between those lives.

Glynda and Ironwood had been working with Ozpin the longest, so to see the normally unflappable Headmaster sounding so... defeated, exhausted...

After about two to three minutes of digesting this information, Nelius looked up towards Ozpin.

"Might there be a way to break Salem's control over the Grimm?" That caught the Headmaster's attention, whom gave him a quizzical look in turn.

"What do you mean?"

"I was thinking about that insect Cinder tried to use against Amber... from what your memories showed and what your first incarnation explained," Nelius had briefly turned his head to regard Ozma before focusing back on Ozpin, "Destruction made the Grimm and said that it gifted humanity magic back during those times. Assuming I'm not missing any details, Salem could be using her control of the Grimm to allow Cinder to steal Amber's magic, since they draw from the same source. If there's a way to rob her of that control, make it so that the Grimm won't heed her beck and call, it'd help tilt things back in your favor."

"While a novel idea, unfortunately I've not heard of anything that could do so, even across my multiple incarnations." Ozpin softly lamented. "One of the only things I know of related to quelling the Grimm would be the Silver-Eyed people, and even then it was merely heresay."

"How so?"

"Silver-Eyed people were said to be natural-born warriors, able to slay Grimm with a single glance." Qrow explained. "One of my teammates, Summer Rose, had silver eyes, but she disappeared on a mission years ago." There was a small pause, as if Qrow was internally weighing the idea of elaborating further about her. "All that we know about 'em comes mostly from old anecdotes related to legends and similar stories, without anything really concrete to go upon."

"Hmm..." Inwardly, Nelius began thinking on this. Normally, legends at least had some kernel of truth behind them, so there had to be something concrete upon which to build such a story.

"Uh, Mister Ozma..." Epsilon had that look on her face of realizing something as she spoke up.

"Yes?" Ozpin's first incarnation looked towards her.

"That memory of when you were revived the first time, when the Grimm tried to attack the God of Creation... I know it ain't pretty, but could you show some of that again? I want to double-check something I thought I saw."

It was an odd request, but Ozma granted it. Once again, they were in the Realm of Destruction, watching the Grimm leap towards Creation once again, and with that same flash of light the Grimm dissipated into nothing as Creation assumed its draconic form. Epsilon had been watching carefully-

"That's it!"

"What's it?"

"Look at Creation's own eyes!" She pointed toward the God's eyes, and for a brief moment it was hard to tell due to the brightness, but when it died down...

"...my word."

The Creation God had Silver-colored eyes focused on its younger brother.

"So is that where the eyes came from?" Nelius had deduced a possibility. '_But do they even hold the same potential power, or is this mere coincidence?_'

"A moment, though.." Glynda had begun to wonder. "For legends to be so scarce about them..."

"It'd have to be Salem and whatever followers she'd obtained over the centuries." Ozpin concluded. "If evidence got out about people with the power to slay Grimm with a glance..."

"But now I begin to wonder who else this Salem has at her beck and call right now." Nelius pointed out. "So far we only know that Cinder's got a likely allegiance due to that glove we saw her use, which calls into question the relation of her two subordinates in all of this. There could be more agents lurking elsewhere."

"All a fair point to make, but I believe we've spent enough time in here." Ironwood brought up a fair concern of his own. "More than likely the other Professors and my crew are busy trying to figure out why we've gone silent." A few seconds passed before a realization hit. "Say, since part of our original reason for this meeting related to discussing plans going forward, could your machine be used to create another space such as this?"

"James?" Ozpin was curious as to what Ironwood was planning.

"It can, yes. Betting it's to ensure information doesn't leak out?"

"Precisely. Given what all we've experienced today, we... may have to rethink our strategy and outlook. Having a newly secured location to freely speak our minds without fear of it getting into the wrong hands would go a long way towards that goal."

Ozpin was floored. It was as if the General Ironwood he'd known of for such a long time had been replaced by a body double. In all the time he had known Atlas's Headmaster, the man was usually always ready for a head-on solution, one where he got to display the military's might.

"Don't get me wrong... admittedly, I am more than a little disappointed that you would keep a revelation like this hidden from us, Ozpin." At that, Ozpin did look rather guilty. "But we can cross that bridge when we arrive at it. For now, stopping whatever plans Cinder has in store for Vale should be our priority. Once she has been apprehended and the populace is safe and sound, that will hopefully begin to draw out whomever else Salem has on her side. The fewer subordinates she has to command, the better our odds will become."

"How do we leave, though?" Glynda asked.

"Our way out is over there." Nelius pointed to a swirling orange vortex that opened up a few seconds prior. Everyone began to filter out, minus Ozpin, whom remained behind.

Beacon's Headmaster was deep in contemplative thought, thoughts that Ozma was privvy to.

In all of the man's years of dealing with his ex-lover turned genocidal maniac, to think that events would come to end up like this... one part of his mind was exceedingly wary, fearing that even this opportunity would turn out to be for naught. Another part, though much smaller, was trying to rearrange these details into something far more tangible to work with, believing this chance couldn't be passed up.

'_After years of having my plans backfire, suddenly this drops into my lap. I know the Gods are long gone, so this couldn't have been their will, else they'd have come back of their own volition..._'

This was one hell of a crossroads to be at: take the chance, or dismiss it.

**Ozpin's Office, Beacon Academy**

**2:31 P.M.**

Stepping back into the real world, Ozpin's Inner Circle was left to ponder what they had learned, and what path they could take towards solving the current issue. The Dual Diver's orange gate was still open, and they were missing someone.

'_What's taking Ozpin so long?_' Epsilon piped up.

'_Well, we did just get his whole history and why he's doing what he's doing. Baring one's own soul out like that ain't easy for anyone, especially someone with his kind of baggage._' Nelius pointed out.

Glynda's Scroll pinged as it began to reconnect to the CCT, and she opened it up to find a few messages from Oobleck, Port and Peach, each trying to ask where she had gone. She had to carefully choose her words as to why her Scroll was suddenly cut off from the CCT, ultimately settling on stating that their meeting had run a little longer than anticipated.

It was a few minutes more before Ozpin stepped through the gate and back into the office, and hardly two seconds later the swirling orange vortex faded from existence. Almost immediately Nelius began looking over the Dual Diver, and much as he had suspected, the machine simply refused to operate without its power source hooked up to it.

At the same time, Ozpin had headed over to his desk, checking the time and seeing a small flood of messages that had come in during their unwitting excursion into his soul. Less than three seconds later a new message would ping on Ironwood's Scroll as well, coming from his personal transport ship.

Packing the Dual Diver back into its case, Nelius stood up as both Headmasters got to answering the missed calls and other messages.

"Well, not exactly how I planned on demonstrating this thing, so I gotta apologize for that. I'm going to take this home and give it another look-over, see if there was anything I might've missed."

"Very well. Safe travels, Mr. Raoul - we'll be in touch."

With the meeting wrapped up, Nelius excused himself to head back to the base, taking the elevator back down to the ground floor. A few minutes later the elevator came back up so Glynda could head down to teach her next scheduled class.

"Well now." Ironwood had walked over to the silver-haired man, showing him the contents of his most recent message. "Probably for the best we address this before disbanding for the day."

Ozpin took a moment to look over the message.

"Miss Amber wishes to continue her travels?"

"Seems her wanderlust is getting the better of her. Yet, we've still to consider how we're going to keep her safe, considering last year's troubles."

"Indeed. For now, James, this will have to be under your discretion, given that she is a guest of Atlas."

Several floors down, Cinder tapped into the virus's functions, letting her eavesdrop into the conversation in Ozpin's office as the signals finally returned. She wasn't all too certain as to why the signals suddenly cut out, but she wasn't going to question it too much.

'_Interesting... most interesting._' Seems her chance at redemption would fall into her lap sooner than expected. If the Fall Maiden was to continue her travels, then eventually she might cross paths with the magic-wielding woman before long.

However, knowing Ironwood, he was going to push for her to have guards. Regardless, Emerald's Semblance wasn't known to them, so seperating them should be easy enough. Neo would be quite useful in tailing the Maiden, thanks to her penchant for disguises.

At the same time, it seemed that this new character, the one that had unwittingly helped out her plan by apprehending Torchwick, had pulled out some kind of machine that caused a localized blackout effect, cutting off the Scrolls' access to the CCT... if word of this got to one of her co-workers he'd likely ask for her to obtain it so he could tinker with it.

That could stay on the backburner. For now, obtaining the Maiden's magic and crippling Vale were her top priorities. Shutting the virus's functions down for the moment, she had to get moving to the next class if she were to keep up appearances.

"So, Ozpin..." James looked the Headmaster of Beacon right in the eyes. "Do you plan on telling that one about the reason why the Maidens exist?"

"When I know beyond any doubt he can be completely trusted." At the questioning look he received from James, he continued. "Perhaps it's my own less than stellar experiences talking in such a case, and I am aware of his honesty, but something in the back of my mind is constantly saying this is too good to be true. I can only hope I'm wrong in that scenario."

Qrow, on the other hand, had been thinking about what they had learned in Ozpin's heart. Never in his life would he have imagined the Headmaster to be carrying that kind of baggage. He turned to exit the office.

"Qrow?" Ozpin had noted him being unusually quiet.

"I gotta go confirm something real quick. I'll be in touch."

**The Base**

**4:11 P.M.**

Having stopped at a local restaurant to grab some food to go, Nelius stepped back into the small house and immediately headed downstairs. Placing his food on one of the tables, he began unpacking the Dual Diver.

"Gotta say, this is one hell of a mess we're in." Epsilon said, still processing what they had just witnessed.

"That's an understatement. Somedays I begin to wonder if I'm cursed to land in places where poor godly decisions screwed over the population as a whole."

With the Dual Diver now unpacked and set up on the worktable, Nelius tried running several tests to try and figure out how Ozma had managed to make it work without a power source. As his hands were occupied with checking the machine's assembly, his wings formed a second set of hands to get his food ready to consume.

"Ozma's memories showed that the Two Brothers left Remnant after that whole fiasco. Kinda wonder where they are now."

"Optimistically speaking, they're learning from that mess and making plans for when they return. Pessimistically speaking, they're screwing up more lives out somewhere in the cosmos 'cause they don't or won't learn."

Once again, the Dual Diver refused to power on without its source, and nothing internally suggested the creation of a mini-battery or similar power source. Installing the Dust Crystal, he powered the machine on and began to look for an error log, assuming the machine had compiled one during the inadvertant trip.

"...no errors found at all. We are gonna have to ask Ozma how he did that." Powering the machine down, he turned to eat his food, a trio of grilled chicken wraps. He was about halfway through the first wrap when he noticed his ally being awfully quiet. "...Epsilon? You all right?"

"I went to go add this to our Scroll's notes, and something tried getting into my systems through the link."

"Did we pick up something during our excursion?" He turned to regard his Scroll, putting his half-eaten wrap back into the box.

"That's what I'm looking at right now..." It was about ten seconds later that she responded, "..looks like it snuck in during our trip up to Ozpin's Office. It's embedded within one of the critical programs that govern data transfer between Scrolls and the CCT, so one wrong move and this thing might brick the entire system."

"Any way we can safely work around it?"

"I'm not quite certain yet. Whomever coded this thing likely knows Scrolls inside and out, so trying to figure it out is gonna take a while. For the time being, I'd say we should use our Scroll as little as possible, and maybe offload the relevant info onto something else while I analyze this thing."

"Hm... idea." Packing his food up, he headed over to his other supplies and grabbed a notebook with some pencils.

"What're you doing?"

"Well, if we need to minimize details from our Scroll, and give you the best chances of working on this thing without the owner knowing..."

**Several Universes Away, Celestia**

**Unknown Time**

Raphael finished packing his equipment and other essentials for the trip. He did a quick double-check, just to be certain he wasn't missing anything vital.

"That appears to be everything. Time to meet up with the others." Hoisting his bag over his shoulder, he headed for the Celestial Gate. Michael and Hale were there to see him off.

"Please, be careful out there." Hale was the first to speak up.

"Trust me, I have no intentions of getting locked away in another world again. Trust in Mita's skill with the ship - we'll be back."

"Give Farris and Hilde my regards." Michael was the next to speak up.

"Certainly... where's Aliya?"

"One of the Archangels had need of her skills, so she regretfully couldn't make it."

"Well, things happen. Take care, you two." With a flash of light, the Gate opened, and Raphael strode through. Once he had gone through and the Gate closed, Michael and Hale began to head back.

As the two went their seperates ways, Michael headed back to the abode he was sharing with Aliya whilst he recovered from the events of the previous world. He had gotten only a third of the way there when he felt something akin to a chill brush across the front of his face.

Ahead of him was what looked like a figure, albeit one not in the usual garb of the Celestial Host. In the time it took for him to blink, the figure was long gone.

'_Perhaps I still need more rest and proper food._' Brushing it off as a trick of the mind, the Holy Dragon continued on towards home.

**Yoshitsuna Landing Site**

**Unknown Time**

Raphael soon appeared at the Yoshitsuna's landing area in a soft burst of light. Immediately, he could see York and Brutus doing double-checks over the outer armaments. He approached, and the pair recognized him.

"Hey Raphael, dood." York waved a flipper. "How'd things go?"

"Well enough. Michael's in good hands with Aliya keeping tabs on him, and I also ran into an old friend of ours that ought to help him even more. How're things going here?"

"Right now we're mostly waiting on Mita's new hires to arrive." Brutus updated the angel. "An extra set of hands keeping the ship in top condition will make this operation much less of an issue."

"A fair point. Who all is coming with us?"

"Aside from York, Mita, Zio and myself, we have Cordelia and Hilde joining this operation. Farris was going to also join, but recent events in her corner of the cosmos have her hands full. She did say she'd try to find someone to send our way."

"Good to know. Let me get this stuff dropped off and I'll help out where I can." With that, Raphael headed into the interdimensional vessel to claim a room and drop off his baggage.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**4:26 P.M.**

"Won't lie, this is a great idea. We're cut off from the CCT in here."

As Nelius took this time to copy down his notes from his Scroll to the notebook and enjoy his meal, Epsilon was more than free to work on figuring out the mysterious addition to the Scroll, and how best to handle it.

The venue they had chosen to work on these notes was one of the spires of the Overlord's Castle, now more or less restored to pristine condition. From up here, one could see a fair lay of the land. In the small moments between copying his notes and finishing his food, he took a quick out outwards, seeing if he could recognize any of the surrounding areas from memory.

"Only issue is ensuring we don't get compromised while we're in here. There is an emergency function to toss us out if the Diver loses power or gets damaged, but I'd rather not have it go off."

"Fair enough." It was a few minutes more before Epsilon thought on something. "Say, about this strange data packet... if it came from us connecting to the CCT at Beacon, then even if we get a solution in place to deal with this, it's likely already spread to anyone else that's connected, and I'm willing to bet nobody else even knows about this right now."

"Questions right now are who uploaded this, and for what purpose?"

"Those I don't know at the moment, but if I can get this understood and possibly turned around in our favor we might be able to use it to out our mystery hacker... and maybe a bit more."

Having finished copying his notes, Nelius put the notebook and pencils into one of his wings. As he waited for Epsilon to give the go-ahead to return to the outside, he began thinking on Salem's actions.

'_Pitiable woman, indeed... locked up for her entire life by a crappy parent, and when she finally is set free the one whom did so died of a horrendous virus. Little wonder she's a basket-case... yet it hardly excuses the Two Brothers from being complete assholes about it._'

His mind then turned to Qrow and Ozpin's statements about the Silver-Eyed Warriors, of how they were said to have powers able to slay Grimm with a glance, and of how it seemed Salem was trying to erase them from existence.

'_Still, if these Silver-Eyed people do have a power similar to the Creation God, and Salem doesn't want it anywhere near her... what would such a power do to her in the first place, considering she's infected with that Destruction ichor, yet is also immortal? Would that power be enough to cleanse it from her, or would it do something completely different?_'

He ultimately decided to put those thoughts on the backburner for the time being.

'_I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, we ought to focus on tossing a wrench into Cinder's plans for Vale. If she is allied with Salem, then her going down would put an end to that plot, and hopefully force the other sycophants to emerge... besides, it's not like one of these Silver-Eyed people would be out in the open, if they were being hunted down._'

"Hey, how're things on your end?"

"Right now, I'm trying to finagle a firewall based on one within my systems, but it's mostly a stopgap solution for when we head back out into public."

"Gotcha. Just lemme know when we're good to phase back into the outside."

With his Scroll tightly in hand, he dropped down from the spire and began heading towards the Skill Shop. While he was here, he might as well fine-tune a few things.

**White Fang HQ**

**Unknown Time Zone**

One of the White Fang grunts waved down a few Bullheads, each one piloted by a few of the higher-up members. As they landed, the side-doors opened, and the stolen Dust and other supplies were extracted. A few other Bullheads served as transportation, those aboard disembarking.

"Brother Taurus?" One of the pilots looked over, seeing the aforementioned member seemingly in thought.

"Hm?" Adam looked up from his Scroll at the pilot.

"We're here."

"Hm." Without another word, Adam got off the Bullhead and headed into the Headquarters.

Watching his approach was someone wearing a white-trimmed red hood which doubled as a cloak, made of two pieces held together by yellow buttons and matching string. However, this one had a pair of holes cut into his hood, allowing his large fox ears to go free. He was clad in a black tunic with white trim, which were matched with white pleated pants. Detatched white sleeves, bound at the bicep and at his wrists by black gloves completed his ensemble.

"Welcome back, Brother Taurus." Adam took a look at whomever it was that had addressed him.

"It's rare that I see you without your brother, Fennec."

"He is merely busy. Nothing extreme, if that is your concern." Fennec replied in turn.

With nothing more to say, Adam headed into the HQ. Beneath his mask, an eyebrow had gone up at the High Leader's Throne being completely empty.

'_Odd... nothing implied that the High Leader headed out prior._' Shrugging, he ultimately decided to head back to his personal quarters. It'd be a little while before it was time to return to Vale... might as well take this time to do a little upkeep on his weaponry.

Around the same time, Fennec had waited for Adam to disappear from sight, then withdrew his Scroll. A new message has come in from his brother.

{Has Brother Taurus returned?}

{Indeed he has. And what of the High Leader's excursion to Menagerie?}

{Almost complete. We'll be returning by tomorrow.}

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**5:42 P.M.**

With his purchases at the Skill Shop complete, Nelius spent some time re-reviewing what he had available to work with as Epsilon continued her work on trying to decipher this weird data packet. He had headed out of the town and towards one of the other areas, mostly for a change of scenery.

"Hopefully my firewall and its extra modifications will hold long enough once we depart." Epsilon said. "While I was able to figure out a bit more about that thing, for right now I'm planning on taking it cautiously."

"I'd say we're in no rush, but that would be lying. Still, whatever you find out will only aid us in the long run."

They walked into the fascimile of the Midnight Town, seeing that the damage done during his duel with his doppelganger had been long repaired.

"Say... if that Cinder chick is working for Salem and trying to burn Vale down, there has to be a purpose besides simply spiting Ozpin."

"So a motive beyond just the Destruction ichor's influence or her hatred against the Two Brothers? That is a fair question.." As Nelius thought back on what they had learned today, an idea popped into his mind, "...one which I believe may have already been answered."

"Wait, what?" Epsilon gave him a look of confusion.

"The four Relics that Creation left behind."

"The Relics-" As the scene replayed in her mind, it then clicked for Epsilon. "...oh balls."

"My thoughts exactly. If Salem is gunning for them, then she likely believes that Ozpin knows their locations, and anyone else that he's affiliated with would likely be in the know as well. With what his memories showed, he was able to use the Relic of Knowledge to learn of the others' locations, so she's got a solid idea right there."

"But wasn't it stated that they'd summon the Brothers back when brought together?"

"I'm willing to bet she's got a plan in store for that, assuming the Relics need to be in a close-enough proximity. Still, we saw what the Relic of Knowledge was able to do, given that it answered Ozma's questions without any strings attached, so imagine what the others could pull off in the wrong hands."

They knew the Relic of Knowledge was the latern-like lamp, so that left three others. Assuming they had been introduced with their respective shape, there was a solid basis for what the other Relics could be. A Staff governing creation, a Sword govering destruction, and a Crown of choice.

"Perhaps. Though what would that have to do with Cinder being here and trying to grab Amber's magic?"

"Added muscle, without a doubt. If Amber is among the only people aside from Ozpin and Salem that could use magic in any form, then having that kind of power on Salem's side would generously tip things in her favor even further. We both saw what Amber could do on her own, with it taking Cinder and her two lackeys to subdue her."

"True... though I find it a little odd that Amber is able to use magic, considering that the Brothers vaporized everyone else that had the ability before reviving humanity. Ozpin's got his since he directly reincarnates, and Salem's is due to her inability to die. How and where did she gain such?"

"Hm, another thing we'll need to ask Ozpin once we meet up with him again... speaking of, when are we good to head back?"

"One last touch and... this is about as secure as I can make this data vault without completely compromising the Scroll's systems. If you got all the relevant stuff copied down we can head on back now."

Heading back into the fascimile of town, the gate opened up upon proximity to it, and the pair prepared to exit back to Remnant.

**Yoshitsuna Landing Zone**

**Unknown Time**

A Dimensional Gate swirled into existence near the ship. Out of it walked Hilde with two extra people behind her.

The first of the two new arrivals was a male demon clad in beige pants and heatproof black shoes. A pair of straps looped over his shoulders to hold up a metallic apron around his stomach. Matching the metal apron was a pair of gloves work overtop black cloth to prevent chafing. A welding mask was flipped up to reveal his face as he took in the sight.

"Damn... and here I thought that thing detonated centuries ago."

"Clearly it's a replica, albeit a very good one." The other member of the team spoke up. She was a blonde whose immensely long hair was only kept in check by a large red hair tie. Her outfit consisted of a button-up sleeveless black jacket that was undone partially around her belly button, parting enough to show her short red miniskirt which was held up by a belt. Large black gloves were bound to her wrists by semi-oversized straps, and she had matching boots worn overtop blacks stockings.

"This way." Hilde spoke up, motioning for the other two to follow her into the ship. She lead them towards the bridge. "Mita, I'm back."

"Ah, so these are the ones that answered?" Mita looked the other two demons over, getting a nod from Hilde in return.

"Mita, these are Tarma-" She gestured to the man, " -and Tia." And then to the woman.

"Excellent." She then opened up a communications channel. "Hey York, our new hires are here."

"On my way, dood." About a minute later, York entered the bridge of the ship, and wasted no time in looking the two new arrivals over. "Well, no time like the present to check out what they can do, dood. Follow me."

As the green Prinny lead the two other demons down the hall to put their skills to the test, Hilde looked back over to Mita.

"Fair guess to say we're waiting on Cordelia and Farris's replacement now?"

"That we are. Once they get settled in we're off."

With an understanding nod, Hilde headed back towards the room she had claimed for this trip, leaving Mita to do some more checking over the ship's systems.

**Vale, Ozpin's Office**

**8:04 P.M.**

With the day beginning to wind down, Ozpin took to staring out his office window, his mind still abuzz with the recent developments. The mission that he had to carry on his own was now much clearly out in the open to his allies, though the pessimistic side of his soul still believed that it was merely a matter of time before even they would leave him, forcing him to start from square one once again.

It was now that his mind returned to an old question, one that had silently plagued him on and off during his many lives.

'_Where would Remnant be if I had simply heeded Creation's warning...would the world be in a better position, or would nothing have changed?_'

He shook the thoughts from his mind, knowing the futility of trying to seek an answer from a question that would never come to pass. The only thing he could do now was try and prepare for the future, and for whatever else Salem would be planning. Still, the thought that Cinder was just one of Salem's new subordinates for this generation got him thinking again.

'_For Cinder to be here, and have made an attempt to steal the Autumn Maiden's powers.. it would seem that possibility has come to be, much as I had hoped it wouldn't. Combine this with Leonardo being pressured..._'

He headed back over to his desk, and brought up his screen. Despite his earlier misgivings, he knew now that taking no action would result in his fears coming to pass.

Chapter 18: Complete


	19. Chapter 19

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 19: Closing a Chapter

Over in another Netherworld, Cordelia was looking through a wide selection of RosenQueen goods. There was no telling how long this trip would take, so they'd need to grab some food and other items that would last for a long while. While Mita had taken a little time to gather up some other supplies, it was generally better to have and not need, rather than need and not have.

'_Perhaps these... ooh, those are nice... maybe York would like these, too..._' The Netherworld Gunslinger took this opportunity make her selection, grabbing several items that would last for a long time. However, as she left an aisle to head towards the checkout, she narrowly avoided colliding with someone whom had been walking perpendicular to the aisle.

"Whoa, careful there now~" A female voice that practically dripped with flirtatious intent rang out to the Gunslinger, catching her attention.

This new demon woman looked to stand around 5'7", with blood red hair and a skin tone that implied plenty of time beneath the human-world sun. Due to the somewhat more comfortable climate in this Netherworld, she was clad in a dark green spaghetti-strap top and hip-hugging black short-shorts, showing off a toned figure that more than suggested a fair amount of athleticism. It took Cordelia a fair amount of self-control to keep her eyes from wandering too much and instead focusing on this woman's face, sighting a pair of bright orange eyes.

"You OK there?" The redhead asked after a moment, snapping Cordelia back to a sense of normality.

"Oh, uh, yeah... you're not hurt, are you?"

"I'm quite all right. That's a fair amount you got there - going on a trip?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Gotta go pick up an ally of ours." Cordelia sighted a bunch of flyers under the redhead's arm. "What're those for?"

"Oh, these? My sister's kid disappeared about three to four months back, so I'm lending her a hand in finding him. Kinda quiet kid for being a demon and all, and I know he can look after himself, but man was she pissed at the Overlord being so negligent."

"Oh my."

"Real pisser is that said Overlord used to be really damn good, too, the kind that wouldn't ask of her vassals anything she wouldn't do herself... calling it a fall from grace is an understatement."

"Well, may success be yours, miss..."

"Anesha." The redhead shot Cordelia a wink.

"Anesha, then. I'm Cordelia - perhaps our paths will cross again?"

"I certainly hope so." With that, Cordelia headed up to the checkout as Anesha headed over to an old notice board.

The cashier on duty, a Male Warrior, looked as though he was only barely keeping awake. After a bit of prodding to snap him to attention, Cordelia paid for the supplies and packed them up to go. She headed for the local Dimensional Guide to get a trip over to Mita's ship.

Anesha, in the meanwhile, had stapled two of her flyers onto a notice board, depicting the last known appearance of a young child with light brown hair and yellow eyes. There were numbers on the bottom of the flyer to contact one of four people - herself, Tyrios, Eoria, and Monica.

'_Hope you're giving that Overlord what she's got coming, sis._' Her tail unfurled from around her waist and twitched at the thought.

**Other Netherworld, Farris's Ranch**

**Unknown Netherworld Time**

"Holy balls it feels like forever since I was home." Farris opened the front doors of the ranch and stepped in, welcoming Stonewall and Blindfire in with her. "Hey, Sonin! I'm back!"

It was quiet... honestly, a little too quiet for this place, considering her work.

"Sonin?" She called out again, and got no response in turn. Now suspecting something was up, she drew her spear as she silently signaled for her two allies to keep an eye out. She went to the various areas of her ranch to look through the various rooms.

Side kitchen? Clean as could be, and it even looked freshly stocked.

Living Room? It pretty much looked untouched.

Personal Quarters? Door was locked, and upon unlocking it and opening up, she could see that nothing was out of place.

"Boss?" A new female's voice could be heard coming from behind her, and Farris immediately turned on the spot.

Standing there was a woman whom almost looked like a carbon copy of Farris, yet there were several differences, namely her hair being a dark green, her skin tone being a few shades darker, and her eyes being a bright blue. Of course, her garb had its own share of differences and she stood about three inches shorter than Farris, but that was for another time.

"Sonin! Sorry I was gone so long."

"The heck kept you away all this time?"

"Come on - I'll explain what I can." Leading Sonin to the Living Room, Farris told her what she could about what had happened in the other world... of how its God created the intentional balance, of how one desired to stop it, and the consequences therein. Stonewall and Blindfire, in the meantime, had opted to head into the back areas to get reacquainted with whatever wild demons decided to show up on occasion.

"...sounds like it was one wild ride, boss."

"That's putting it lightly. Anything of interest go down while we were out?"

If one were to look out the window, which had a small view of the ranch's side area, Blindfire could be seen tossing spare bricks into the air and rapid-firing to break them apart. Stonewall, by contrast, appeared to have found a Wood Golem and was having a silent exchange with it.

"Mostly business as usual. Did get this one demon that wanted to try and buy the place out - left their card on the front desk."

"I'll take a look at it here in a bit. For now, I gotta find someone."

"Huh? Didn't you just get back, boss?"

"Mita, the demon whom helped us get back, is planning another trip to find our last group member. I told her I'd try and find someone to fill my spot, given that I've got a lot to catch up on here."

"Ah... well, I dunno if she's around anymore, but there was this Nekomata I met a few hours ago whom was in the area for business. Assuming she hasn't left already, she might be interested in taking your spot, or might know someone else that could."

"Sounds like a lead. Any identifying features?"

"Lemme remember..." Sonin closed her eyes to help herself get a better mental picture of the Nekomata in question. "Blonde hair, kinda beige-red fur and her eyes were different colors. One was brown and the other was a silvery-grey. She was also pretty tall for a Nekomata as well... I'd say maybe about four to five inches taller than you, boss?"

"All right. I'll get this stuff put away and we can go take a look."

**Vale, The Base**

**Wednesday, September 21, 8:46 A.M.**

Nelius got up from his cot, taking a moment to stretch and get his usual jacket on. With all of yesterday's events, it had given him plenty to think about.

Ozpin being stuck in a crappy situation, Cinder acting on behalf of Salem, the Gods outright abandoning Remnant, but leaving behind a method to summon them back...

He looked over at Maximov, the decoration turned deadly weapon. For being a mere display of an old vampire clan's power, he had managed to turn it into a fearsome item all its own, but he knew that if he wanted to make it even stronger he'd need to go far beyond the usual depths in its Item World. Of course, he could take the practical route and use the Item World to find himself a new axe.

At the same time, that could've easily applied to Shatterpact and Croixshot. They had served him faithfully thus far, but eventually they'd hit a plateau of personal growth and slow down considerably.

Whatever question he had as to today's plans was put on hold as his Scroll gave a chirp, indicating a new message coming in. While he was wary of this, due to Epsilon's warning about the data packet, he opened his Scroll up to see what was new.

Sender: Belderiver

Topic: One Last Message

"Last message... what's this about?"

He opened the new message.

I understand if this seems a touch sudden, but after the events with your doppelganger, there has been a little soul-searching that went on.

Enter your heart once more, so we may have our discussion.

'_Soul-searching, eh?_'

With the die cast, Nelius powered the Dual Diver on and set it to Soul Diving. Once the orange gate opened up and stabilized, he got his gear in order and strolled through.

**Other Netherworld**

**Unknown Time**

Farris and Sonin had stopped by the closest of the local towns. Wasting no time, the pair set off asking around about a blonde Nekomata.

"Blonde Nekomata, eh?" A Jack O`Lantern monster responded back. "Don't get too many of 'em around these parts, much less blonde ones."

"Sounds familiar..." An Alraune had a slightly better lead as she pointed off in a direction with a vine. "Think I saw her headed towards the old Post Office some time ago. She had a whole bunch of papers with her."

Heading over to the old Netherworld Post, the two of them asked the clerk on duty about her.

"Blonde Nekomata with mismatched eyes?" The clerk, a violet-haired Archer, flipped through a few files. "Yeah, we had one stop by. You missed her by about an hour or so - she stopped in, dropped off some flyers, paid for their distribution, and headed out towards Gorgeous."

"Damn." Farris snapped her fingers in disappointment.

"Flyers? What about?" Sonin was curious as to what was dropped off. In response, the Archer slid her one, depicting a missing persons alert about a young brunette child with yellow eyes. It appeared as though the child had gone missing from a different Netherworld around three to four months ago, and if any information about him came up, there were a small series of numbers to call in.

"Huh... kid looks familiar, but I can't place my finger on it." Farris had taken a look at it over her apprentice's shoulder. "Well, thanks for the info."

The two chose to depart, Sonin hanging onto the flyer. They would need to look elsewhere to find that replacement.

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**8:55 A.M.**

Entering into his heart, Nelius stepped into the facsimile of the Netherworld that was once his home. His surroundings looked pretty much indistinguishable from the real deal.

"Belderiver? You here?" He called out, and after a moment the shadowy being emerged, but looked... off, transparent. "What the... what's going on?"

"_**My time is running short. This way.**_" Belderiver motioned for its soul-host to follow.

"The merging, right?" The pair exited the town and passed right by the town of Midnight, heading for the old Dimensional Port that lay beyond it.

"_**Indeed. There are two pieces of information I wanted to personally tell you of before I fade away into your subconscious for good.**_"

When the two of them were about halfway between the town and the port, Belderiver stopped, and reached down to pick up something that lay hidden within the grass.

"What's that?" The item Belderiver had picked up looked like a broken manacle, one akin to what the old Sinners and the Male Healers wore as penance for their crimes. However, across what metal remained of it were old Netherworld characters.

"_**A piece of the seal your former employer used, which birthed my existence. While you were dealing with matters out there, I had been trying to study this... whatever that seal was, it's nothing of recent Netherworld advancement.**_"

"So it's an old spell, then? Like, Zenon-levels of old?" As Nelius thought on this, a particular thought crossed his mind. '_And pieces of it still remained, even after I managed to erase the old mark on my hand?_'

"_**That, I am uncertain of. Even with fragments like this one to study, it seems to be beyond my current knowledge.**_"

"Even so, I'd rather have 'em destroyed. Even if the chance of me running into Sirea is slim, I'd rather not risk the chance of that bitch reforming it again." To that, Belderiver nodded.

"_**Then it is time to replicate your actions when you escaped your home Netherworld. You broke the outer layer, so it's only fitting the inner layer also vanishes by your hand.**_"

"Ain't gotta tell me twice." Taking the old manacle, Nelius tossed it into the air with his right hand... and used his left hand to launch a Giga Fire spell at it, incinerating the manacle and ending its existence. "Any more of 'em I gotta terminate?"

Belderiver lead the way.

**Other Netherworld**

**Unknown Time**

"Ugh, dammit..." Farris had stopped off at a local eatery to grab some food. "It's been hours and we can't find a replacement for the trip." Grumbling about the current lack of success, she bit into a fried Cockatrice leg, tearing the flesh from the bone with ease.

"Well, telling 'em '_Hey, we need someone to dive into the great unknown to extract a guy_' isn't exactly the most compelling recruitment story." Sonin countered before taking a bite out of some sauteed Eryngi. "Besides, of everyone who's going, what kinda person would they need to round off the group?"

"Let's see... Mita and York can handle keeping the ship stable, and I know she was going to get more mechanics for that, so presumably two... Brutus and Zio have been working with her for a while, so they're on without a doubt. Cordelia was out getting stuff, and I know Hilde's tagging along. Assuming Raphael is also on-board, that'd be nine occupants... I'd guess either a Healer or another spell-caster, maybe someone whom can dip into both to bring the total up to ten."

"Well, it's a start. Let's see who fits the bill, then narrow things down from there. Someone has to have an open schedule."

The two Beastmasters finished their food and headed off to find that certain person, not yet realizing that they were being tailed...

The being tailing the two of them was but a spirit, but after managing to overhear Raphael's preparations to find their lost ally, it had come down to the Netherworld to hear more about this. Now knowing that Farris was among those who were seeking to reclaim the lost one, especially once it laid eyes on the flyer Sonin had brought with her, it resolved itself to follow them and hear more.

**Yoshitsuna Landing Area**

**Unknown Time**

"Farris is taking her sweet time with that replacement." Mita, having finished all preliminary checks on the warship's systems, groused a bit as she had little else to do while she waited.

"In fairness, Mita..." Zio responded, "..finding someone whom is willing to embark on a possible inter-dimensional journey just to locate one demon is the classical '_needle in a haystack_' dilemma, to borrow a human-world term. Add to that the general selfish nature of most demons..."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." However, she had a feeling that something had been forgotten...

Meanwhile, in another area of the ship, York was showing the various systems of the ship to Tarma and Tia, getting the new hires up to speed in what to look out for when it came to making repairs and general upkeep.

"Man..." Tarma was beside himself in a mixture of glee and awe. "How long were you working on this thing?"

"Lost count of the years, dood. Mostly I'm chomping at the bits to finally reincarnate... maybe I'll be able to do that once this mission's done and over with, dood." York responded. "It'd be nice to be able to work on things like this without worrying about going up like a nuclear bomb just from getting tipped over, dood."

Tia, however, was checking out another part of the machinery, taking note of a generator that went towards the front end of the ship.

'_Hmm..._'

**Nelius Raoul's Netherheart**

**10:37 A.M.**

"_**And here's the last one.**_" With a prompt incineration, the old seal was erased. Notably, the air around them seemed to lighten just enough to be nearly unnoticed.

"Finally." Nelius then turned to regard Belderiver. "Assuming that was the first piece of information, what's the second?"

"_**I'll take over for this one.**_" A familiar voice rang clear, which got Nelius to immediately click his gauntlets into place as a certain draconic-looking being landed nearby.

"You again!" Staring the beast down, he was ready to-

"_**Calm yourself... I'm not here for a fight.**_" Nelius blinked at that, not looking convinced by its words. "_**I'd prefer to not take another Big Bang to the gullet.**_"

"So why are you here?" His stance relaxed slightly, though he kept at the ready to move if need be.

"_**Deliverance.**_"

"...what."

"_**As Belderiver likely no doubt told you, soon he will disappear back into your conscious, given the means of his creation. As you have asserted your strength over me, I will follow suit, despite my origin.**_"

"And what does that have to do with you being here?"

"_**This.**_" The draconic-looking being began to turn translucent as a wispy, orange-white mote of condensed smoke appeared in its place, looking to be roughly the size of Nelius's own torso.

"The hell is this?"

"_**The curse that was meant to erase you from existence... the curse that allowed me to rise... if you are adamant on defying the rules, then I want to see you take this curse and transform it into something that none other have ever imagined!**_"

'_That energy reading Mita made note of after we fought those Chaos Gods..._'

The wispy mote floated over to Nelius, whom outstretched his hand to take it, though a small part of his mind was being wary for any tricks this thing might pull.

The moment it touched his hand, the mote disappeared into it.

"_**Seems like it's time, then... though we may fade from this space, we are always at your side, Nelius Raoul.**_" At that, Belderiver walked over to its soul-host, and laid a hand upon his shoulder, fading away for good.

"_**Should we ever be needed, call upon us freely.**_"

"_**I can't wait to see how you flip the script!**_"

**Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office**

**10:58 A.M.**

'_Qrow hasn't responded since the other day..._' Ozpin was trying to throw his concentration into doing his duties as Headmaster, but ever since yesterday's inadvertant trip into his heart, it felt more like he was merely going through the motions.

The message he had begun typing up the other night was still saved to a document he had yet to send. All he had to do was send it out to its intended recipient, yet... the same hesitation from before wracked his mind, causing a relentless tide of second-guessing himself.

In an attempt to get his mind off the subject, he got up from his desk and took to staring out the office window, which gave him a generous view of the Academy. A moment to stretch and get the blood flowing would do him some good-

"Isn't it time to quit hesitating?" His reflection suddenly snapped at him, giving the Headmaster a small jolt of adrenaline as he focused his attention onto said reflection. He blinked, but his reflection did not, instead choosing to stare him down.

"..did-"

"Ozpin, you've been shouldering this entire operation by yourself..." His reflection suddenly changed, becoming Ozma, "...no man is an island, as you've often told James."

"...I know, yet..."

"Continue down this path, and your fears will come to pass by your own hand." Another reflection showed up, another of Ozpin's former lives - the incarnation that had come to rule alongside Salem. "You have an opportunity here, something that can advance your goals whilst stifling hers."

"I'm more than aware, but every risk I've taken has always ended in disaster. How do I keep this from repeating itself?"

"Perhaps it is time to end the reactive response and start becoming proactive." Another reflection showed up, the incarnation that had used the Relic of Knowledge. "You've been on the defensive end of this whole ordeal for practically every life you've lived, just waiting to try and parse out Salem's next plan. A defensive fortification is only as solid as its planning and infrastructure, and all it takes is one opening, no matter how small, for that wall to come crumbling down, and undo all of the work you've put in place."

There wasn't much Ozpin could say in his own defense. His prior life held a fair point - for everything he had put in place to safeguard the Relics from Salem and find trustworthy allies in this nigh-endless battle, not only had one of her subordinates been trying to sow strife and discord through the criminal element in Vale, that same subordinate was now inside Beacon doing Brothers-knows-what. Add to this the fact that Leonardo appeared to have thrown in his lot with Salem, putting Haven and much of Mistral in the crossfire as well... even James had been unusually quiet since the other day.

'_Perhaps they're onto something. Maybe a new approach is what is needed._' He looked up, only to see that the reflections of his past lives were gone, leaving only his own to stare back at him.

Turning around, he brought up the document that contained the message he was going to send, and immediately began to rewrite it.

**The Base**

**11:04 A.M.**

Nelius stepped back into reality, exiting through the orange gate.

'_So that's it... maybe it's just the cynic in me, but I thought that would've gone on longer..._' He headed around to shut the Dual Diver down. It was now that he noticed that Epsilon hadn't spoken up at all yet. '_She still snoozing?_'

He closed his eyes, and made an attempt to open up the mental link the two had established.

'_Hey, you OK?_'

'_Mmmm?_'

'_Did I wake you up? Sorry if I did._' He shut the Dual Diver down, extracting the Electric Dust Crystal for good measure.

'_Not really... just been trying to process the recent events. No matter how I run the numbers, Ozpin's got the short end of the stick with this whole situation._'

'_More than likely Creation was thinking that Salem would eventually accept the whole life/death deal... but if she's had all that time to dwell on it since then, and she's still warring with Ozpin, then I honestly don't see her ever making an honest attempt to learn._'

He headed over to the stairs, heading up to exit out the side door and get a feel for the weather.

'_...y'don't imagine she's deliberately choosing to refuse, do you?_' He paused for a moment.

'_At this point, I wouldn't be surprised. Being locked up for her entire life by a shitty parent effectively chopped off any ability for her to learn or properly grow. And then the moment she does taste freedom, her rescuer dies, her request to revive him is denied, and then she runs to the other Brother.._'

'_Just like a kid running to the other parent when the first one declines... it really is like she never grew up._'

Now outside, Nelius took this moment to allow his wings to stretch. One of the perks of living remotely - nobody to catch you in a compromising moment.

'_Still, kinda wonder what would've happened if Ozpin had heeded that warning._'

'_To not seek Salem out? I'm no psychologist, but I'd bet she'd either still be isolating herself, or she'd get crazy jealous at seeing other people get what she had been denied... in the latter case, I'd wager she'd still be doing things like what Ozma showed us, just far less discriminatory._' It was then that an idea crossed her mind. '_Say, could we use the Dual Diver to go into her heart?_'

'_Only way that'd happen is if she willingly allowed others in. The Soul Diver's based off the old Heart Vaults from Evil Academy - only those the heart's owner allows in will get to accompany them._'

'_Nuts..._'

'_There used to be a case where anyone could walk in, but after it was used to make a high-profile Overlord go off the deep end and incite a galactic-level incident, measures began getting added to avoid that kind of catastrophe happening again._'

It was about ten seconds later that Epsilon spoke up again as Nelius retracted his wings.

'_...now I see why. The idea of an unknown party rooting around in my soul is all kinds of yikes._'

'_The Diver could be used to help treat a wide variety of issues, but it'd only be as effective as the person being examined. Even the best psychologists in the universe can't help someone whom refuses to change._'

**Other Netherworld**

**Unknown Time**

"...thinking we ought to call it a day, boss." Sonin had taken a seat on a log, mostly so she could remove her shoes and rid herself of some debris that had gotten in during their travels. The edge of the woods that they had decided to shortcut through was right before them.

"Looks like it. I'll have to contact Mita and tell her to either head off without me or have Hilde try and find that replacement." Farris shook her mane of hair, tossing out some rocks and twigs from it.

Sonin was about to respond, but then felt something was off as Farris turned back towards the foest, hand already reaching for her spear.

"We've got a guest." Farris warned.

"Where from?"

"Over there." She drew and leveled her spear in a direction leading back towards the way they had come. Sonin was immediately on alert, drawing her bow and getting an arrow ready.

"Calm yourselves." A woman's voice echoed back to them. "I didn't mean to startle you, but hearing someone come close to my personal getaway spot did catch my interest."

"Picked a hell of a spot, that's for certain..." Farris lowered her spear, but kept wary of this new presence. "Treants, Wood Golems, Alraune... even get a couple of Fae on occasion."

"Exactly the reason why." The voice replied as someone emerged through the trees.

It was indeed a female, standing about maybe half an inch taller than Farris. She was clad in a white dress that had a layer of blue fabric beneath it, with matching detached sleeves on her arm. Said sleeves were lined with a green trim that was patterned after leaves, and a pair of demon wings came to rest around her hips. Dark blue hair flowed from her head, and though a ponytail holder was used to keep it at bay, it split off into multiple strands behind her. Green eyes regarded the pair of Beast Tamers.

"How long were you tracking us?" Farris was on guard - this demon seemed friendly enough, but it was a kind she'd not met before.

"About the time you passed my little hideaway further in... roughly twenty minutes ago. My kind is able to hear the voices of plant-life, so what they hear tends to get passed to me."

"Aha. Well, sorry if we spooked you, but we gotta get moving."

"To find that 'replacement', as you had said before? What of it, if you don't mind indulging my curiosity?"

"Cliff-notes version - we were on another world, jerkass god decided to try and kill us, we killed him in turn, one of our own got separated from us due to a dimensional disturbance. Mita's the one heading this search, and I got a lot of paperwork to catch up on back home, so I was trying to find someone to take my spot."

"Ah." She took a moment to digest this... and a thought crossed her mind. '_My sisters mean well with everything they've taught me, and Veil has been more than capable of filling any gaps, but this... this might just be the experience I needed._' She focused back on Farris. "I take it the expedition has yet to take off?"

"Yeah... what, you offering to basically fling yourself into the great unknown?"

"Assuming you need or want that extra set of hands."

"Eh, that's up to Mita - I'm just the one who'd be pointing you in her direction."

"Then let us go meet with her."

To that end, Farris and Sonin lead their potential candidate back towards the nearby town, where they could use the Dimensional Gete to travel to Mita's landing area.

"Oh, right... introductions. I'm Farris, and this is my apprentice, Sonin. Who might you be?"

"My name is Zotia."

The three demons headed back towards town, none of them realizing they had picked up a follower...

Chapter 19 - Complete


	20. Chapter 20

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 20: Second Spanner

At the Yoshitsuna's landing site, a Dimensional Gate opened up, allowing Farris, Sonin and their new acquaintance, Zotia, to step through it. Brutus was on watch this time.

"Hm, there you are Farris... and you brought friends."

"I said I was gonna find a pick to replace me, and, well..." She motioned with her head towards Zotia. "Here she is." She then tilted her head towards Sonin. "This is my apprentice."

"Right." He pulled out his comms unit. "Mita, Farris is back, and she's got her replacement."

The door leading to the bridge opened up, and the trio headed inside. Brutus remained outside, keeping a vigilant eye out for any possible trouble that wanted to head their way.

"Oh~" Mita looked pleasantly surprised to see whom accompanied Farris, first looking at Sonin. "Now Farris, you never told me you had a sister."

"She's my apprentice, no blood relation."

"Oh." Now Mita sounded profoundly disappointed. "Anyway, new girl, your name?"

"Zotia. Take it you're Mita?"

"Got it in one." Mita shifted in her chair slightly, leaning forward to put emphasis on her next statement. "Just a fair warning - you're going to be cooped up in here for an undetermined amount of time as we sail the cosmic seas on this trip to find our missing people. Last chance to back out if you trend towards claustrophobia."

Zotia thought on this for a moment more...

"I'm in."

"Very well." Mita leaned back a bit, relaxing the atmosphere. "Have to say, though, it's been ages since I saw one of your kind roaming about. A lotta people I know thought you all went extinct or something."

"We do tend to be a little reclusive." Zotia admitted.

"Anyway, what all can you do? I know your kind are prolific spell-casters, but I like to get a bit more information right from the source."

"Ah, fair enough. Well, I did pick up a few healing arts from one of my older sisters, and if need be I can use a spear or a bow." To aid the latter point, she reached into the confines of her dress and withdrew what looked like a twig, only for it to expand into a spear that had thistles lining its head.

"Very interesting. I'll be keeping a close tab on those skills." Mita turned her attention to the main console as Zotia put her weapon away. "Systems are green, no anomalies detected... unless you've got some last-minute things to attend, we're ready to depart."

With that, Farris and Sonin exited the ship, the former telling Brutus to give York her regards as they headed back through the Dimensional Gate. Zotia, in turn, followed Zio to the back end of the ship, where the personal rooms were located, so she could make use of one.

After double-checking to make certain that everyone was aboard, the supplies were stocked, and the Engine Room was clear, Mita fired up the engines as she opened a ship-wide announcement.

"It's that time, ladies and gentlemen. Our operation is underway! Sit down, strap in, and try not to scream!"

The replica Yoshitsuna Warship lifted into the sky, passing through the atmosphere and into the reaches of space. The Warp Drive kicked in, and soon enough they were off.

**The Base**

**11:35 A.M.**

Nelius had his Scroll opened, checking out the request boards for any Grimm Extermination missions. He was about to refresh the feed when a chime played.

"Hm?" Closing the feed down for the moment, he flipped over to a function he hadn't yet used, seeing that a regular call, of all things, was coming in. '_Unknown Number?_' He was considering letting the other end conclude that he wasn't available, but it kept ringing for a few solid minutes.

"Talk about persistent." Epsilon piped up.

"Probably a spam caller." The unknown number continued to ring, slowly wearing down his patience as he tried to focus back on checking out the Extermination requests. Even if he hit "Reject" it was only a temporary reprieve, since the number would start back up again. "By the Seraph..." There was still the danger of that unknown data packet to consider, but if this caller was so insistent on getting through to him, then it was on their own heads for that. "Hey, is the vault working?"

"Right now, it's running as best it can. If need be I'll work with it some more to keep that packet from spreading."

"Be at the ready, then. No telling what it'll do." He tapped on the "Accept Call" button, but when he put the speaker end of his Scroll to his ear, the voice on the other end was one he wasn't expecting.

"_He..p ... hem..._" The voice on the other end was filled with loud static and glitchy noise, forcing Nelius to pull his Scroll away from his ear as he waited for it to quiet down to a more acceptable level.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"_Sa... my... ddy..._"

"Can you hear me?"

"_.lea.. ore...ul... ined..._"

"If this is a prank I'm hanging up." The line went dead. He simply stared at his Scroll, not quite able to make heads or tails of that strange call. "What the hell..."

He tried to reconnect to whomever or whatever the caller was, only to be told the number didn't exist.

"Non-existent number?" Now Epsilon was curious about this. She went to tap into the Scroll's systems and see if she could backtrace the number herself... only to be met with a similar result. "Hey... right now, it's only Ozpin and his people that know of us being here, right?"

"Aside from the chick in goth colors that ambushed us and said to stay away from Ozpin, that ought to be the case." He shut his Scroll down, pocketing it in the meantime. "We made certain to keep our identities secret from Cinder, so barring a fluke Salem's forces shouldn't know about us yet."

"Still, that was some weird shit that just happened... thinking on it now, it sounded like a cry for help."

"But until we can parse out who was calling, and from where, unfortunately there's not much we can do on that front."

**White Fang HQ**

**Unknown Time Zone**

A large Airship descended near the HQ, and once it had settled, Sienna Khan disembarked, followed shortly by the pilot, Corsec Albain, and several of the soldiers.

"Welcome back." Fennec Albain was there to greet them. "I trust all went well?"

Sienna didn't respond, instead moving past Fennec to head to her living quarters. From what he had managed to see of her face, she looked incredibly displeased.

In turn, Fennec regarded Corsec with a questioning look, the latter of whom motioned for his brother to follow him elsewhere so they could converse.

Meanwhile, further within, Sienna had slipped into her private quarters. Once more, she reached for the Scroll that was hidden within her dresser. Withdrawing it, she read over the messages Ilia had left for her, along with a new one that had been sent just a few days prior.

Sender: Ilia Amitola

Subject: Vale Investigation

Breach-charges and disabled bombs located on old underground Vale trains. Still getting inkling reports of you apparently giving Taurus's team orders to continue stealing Dust from the SDC. Will be preparing to return soon.

Her eyes narrowed. Someone had the audacity to forge her orders, and especially while she was trying to smooth out relations down in Kuo Koana. Now came the question of who was undermining her authority.

'_I have a feeling I know who it might be, but I can't be overt about this..._'

Placing the Scroll back in its hidden compartment, she headed over to her desk to sit down and take a moment to parse out a plan. At the same time, Ilia should've returned to base by now, so she'd need to seek her out soon.

Meanwhile, the Albain Brothers had found a small, out of the way alcove to speak with each other.

"The High Leader seemed quite stressed." Fennec started off. "Did the talks with our people in Menagerie not go as planned?"

"The people of Kuo Kuana heard about the failed breach in Vale." Corsec elaborated, "And many of them have begun to question whether or not she is fit to lead the Fang."

"Hmm... this is troubling, on many accounts... yet at the same time..."

What neither of the Albains had noticed was another White Fang member walking by, whose spotted ears happened to catch a small bit of their conversation.

**Vale, Commercial District**

**12:13 P.M.**

Having seen that most of the Grimm Extermination requests were already taken, Nelius decided to simply walk around Vale for a bit more, largely to retread some old ground and make certain his information was still up to date, and partially to window-shop for a bit concerning Dust Crystal prices.

Notably, a few of the shops had their prices increase just a bit from the other day.

'_Apparently, more White Fang raids have been happening elsewhere, so Dust prices are gonna be in flux again._' Epsilon had tapped into their Scroll once more to do a little CCT-surfing to find which stores would be the most cost-efficient to visit.

'_Not gonna lie, if not for the memories in Ozpin's mind showing how the Faunus were treated long before he got back together with Salem, combined with what we read up on this past year, I'd have imagined their actions as a divide and conquer tactic on her part._'

Another shop close to the edge of the district had also raised prices.

'_Wouldn't surprise me if it were. She's still the ultimate beneficiary if they decide to really come to blows._'

'_True. The Grimm would easily consider it an all-you-can-eat buffet of negative emotion, one that only got riper with better picks as the battle continued on... that Great War from 80 years back is easily a big reminder._'

'_I know it isn't exactly our place to be making decisions about another world's fate, but if things keep going like this I can't reasonably see it ending well..._'

'_Well, the Gods already abandoned this place to its fate, so if they do somehow return - aside from the Relics being gathered - and decide to pitch a fit about Remnant's current state of affairs, that's on them for not having a better fail-safe._' He let out a small huff of irritation as he headed back towards the center of the district. '_Reminds me a bit too strongly of the jackass we fought before landing here..._'

'_Still, though, Salem being made immortal doesn't help Ozpin's odds either, since he can't simply end her, and from what we've seen she's pretty clearly past any phase of diplomacy._'

'_Would be an immense boon if there was another method with which to break her immortality...or at least remove the essence of Destruction from her so she's not a complete nutbar._'

As the offworld demon made a turn to begin heading back south towards the base, he never noticed the quartet of Beacon students that passed right behind him, heading into Vale for their own purposes.

**Atlas Academy**

**Unknown Atleasian Time**

Ironwood was in the middle of mentally reviewing what all he had learned from that unscheduled trip.

He had known of Ozpin's one-man war against Salem, a battle the two had been locked into since ancient times, given that Beacon's Headmaster had told him of several of the events. What he hadn't told of was Salem being made immortal, and with that any means of simply destroying her was out of the question. Adding to this was the fact that the legend of Creation and Destruction was no mere fairy tale; the two Brothers were indeed real, being the ones responsible for Ozpin and Salem's respective means of survival... and if Ozpin's efforts weren't up to what they wanted, Remnant and all of its inhabitants would be no more.

'_And to think, if not for that machine... the Dual Diver, Raoul called it? If not for that, Ozpin's secrets would've been closed off to us... potentially until a disaster struck._' He did admit to an amount of disappointment that Ozpin would've kept such a vital part of the story secret, yet if the look he had seen when Qrow reported that Lionheart had thrown in his lot with Salem was any sort of indicator... how long had he been silently dreading a betrayal? Did previous people he had worked with decided to turn upon him, just as Lionheart had?

He knew, though, that simply mulling this over wouldn't do any good - just as he had said yesterday, they would be in need of a new strategy, something that Salem wouldn't... couldn't see or anticipate. At the same time, being able to find a stable solution would be easier said than done, especially if Salem had more followers in other locations.

At the same time, if someone this time last year had told him of a machine that let you literally walk into someone's soul, he'd have either dismissed them or asked them to be put into a padded cell. Having seen it at work, though, completely flipped any ideas he had about it.

His personal Scroll blipped, indicating a message coming in. He checked it, seeing a reminder that Amber had been re-submitting her request to depart Atlas for warmer areas, since he had been incommunicado yesterday.

'_Hmm..._' Much as he wanted to grant her request, there was also the issue with Cinder being within Beacon's walls, and possibly waiting to strike with that insect again. '_I know there's a fair bit on her plate, but perhaps she could be that necessary element._'

He flipped over to another number saved on his Scroll, and after a moment of consideration, hit send. Before the first ring could complete it was answered.

"General?" A woman's voice promptly responded.

"Specialist Schnee. An interesting tidbit of information happened to come my way yesterday..."

**Item World, Croixshot Floor 265**

**1:03 P.M.**

Nelius punched a hole through the torso of a Wood Golem, immolating it from within to ensure it wouldn't regenerate. A Warrior tried to decapitate him with an axe to the neck from behind, only for Nelius to flip forward, causing the axe to pass overhead... and for one of Nelius's heels to come up hard, smashing into the Warrior's chin and knocking several teeth out. Springing off of his hands, the second he landed back on his feet he hurled a stronger Wind spell at that Warrior, flinging his target into a statue shaped like a gun, shattering it upon impact.

Epsilon, in the meantime, was busy analyzing the data coming in.

'_So far, no anomalies. Everything's going as planned..._'

Nelius drew his axe and swung it, the head finding purchase in the neck of a Dragon, spilling its blood.

'_Hmm... I wonder how we can improve the efficiency..._'

The Dragon roared in pain, and in retaliation tried to bite Nelius's head off. Nelius quickly wrenched his axe free from its scales, spilling more of the Dragon's blood and some of its muscles as he did so. He took this moment to bury a fist between its eyes, fracturing its scales and bones in one blow.

With the Dragon dissolving into a pink mist, it appeared that all of the Notorious on this floor were finally taken care of.

"How's the data collecting going?"

"Pretty much same as last time, though I can't help but feel there should be a more effective method of doing this..."

"I bet there is, but given our current circumstances, unless we happen to somehow luck out and get another replica Yoshitsuna or a Pocket Netherworld to show up... this is what we have to work with at the moment."

Still, with no more business on this floor, they headed down to the next level - floor 266.

As Nelius took in the general population of this floor, he quickly noticed a figure flying in.

This figure looked to be humanoid, but clad in white, and had four feathery wings extending from what looked to be its shoulders and mid-back. It had a puffy white hat on its head and a large cloth around its neck, and hanging within that cloth was an egg with red-brown splotches upon it.

The egg was dropped as the figure flew away, and as it shattered upon impact with the ground, a dark mist swirled up. A large, menacing figure arose from that mist.

This figure stood anywhere from two to three times Nelius's height, and was largely monochrome in color. Its feet had three-digit toes, and its hands were little more than serrated claws. Due to the armor's design, it appeared as though it had eyes and a mouth on the torso, and unwieldly grey hair flew everywhere from its head. Milky-white eyes focused on its new targets.

"What the hell is that?!" Epsilon quickly got a lock on this new figure's power... and if she had still retained her old body, would've felt her blood run colder than Joutenheim on a summer day. This thing... whatever it was, it was giving off power that easily exceeded the Item Gods, and might've exceeded the enemy they had battled prior to landing upon Remnant.

"...aw shit. A Proto-Darkdeath." Nelius answered in a tone that belied more resignation to fight than any amount of worry.

"Darkdeath? I know my database is likely outta date, but are you talking about THE Darkdeath Evilman?"

"The very same. Someone had the bright idea of making their own mass-produced versions, according to an old rumor I remember." The other Notorious had taken notice of Proto-Darkdeath's emergence, and many of them were choosing to run, with some foolhardy ones actually trying to attack the world-conquering machine.

"...I'm not even gonna try to ask why someone thought that was a bright idea." Epsilon was quickly trying to find the quickest route to the Dimensional Gate. In the meantime, Proto-Darkdeath was easily slicing through the Notorious, bisecting several of them at the waist with a few unlucky ones also being decapitated. Whatever attacks they managed to land simply plinked off its armor, giving them reason to back away.

"Trust me, you're not the only one whom has wondered that." Unfortunately, the Dimensional Gate was behind the maniacal monster, and it had already affixed its gaze upon him.

"...please don't tell me you're gonna fight that thing."

"Don't believe we have much choice at the moment." Clicking his gauntlets into place, he readied himself to do battle with Proto-Darkdeath.

**Warship Yoshitsuna**

**Unknown Time**

The gigantic ship passed over another planet, its newly repaired sensory units going to work as they gave the planet a once-over glance, silently analyzing the billions of lifeforms inhabiting it.

As Mita was busy gathering the data from the units, Brutus and Zio were lending her their aid. Information was coming in at a tremendous rate, but they were busy looking for at least two certain signatures... and right now signs were pointing to a negative.

Further back in the ship, Zotia had selected an open room, and was taking a moment to make certain everything she had brought was properly placed where it needed to be after she had quickly cleaned a few things up. Whomever had last been in this room placed everything haphazardly, as if either in a rush or simply uncaring of where their items were placed.

'_Let's see... weapon over here, spare clothing there... and that ought to do it._' With the rearranging finished, she went to take a seat on the provided bed-

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**_"

"By Veil!" Zotia practically leapt back out of her room as the scream of pain registered from right beneath her. Quickly turning around, she bore witness to a shape trying to untangle itself from the covers... whomever it was, they were small enough to have been practically undetectable through sight. Almost immediately Zotia had grabbed her weapon, ready to fight.

"Oooowwwwwww..." The person that emerged was what appeared to be a young girl in violet-colored clothing that tried to emulate a cat, as evident by the cat-eye goggles, paw gloves and boots, and the hat which tried to stick out like a pair of cat ears. "Hey, I'm not a cushion!"

"How was I supposed to know you were in this room? You were buried beneath all those blankets well enough that I couldn't see you."

"What's all the commotion?" Raphael had heard the scream from another part of the ship, and had arrived with Hilde to investigate. "...Sif? Why are you still on the ship?"

"Oh, hey Raph, Hilde! How've you been?" At hearing Sif's cheerfully oblivious hello, he let a sigh loose.

"Sif, you do realize you missed your stop with Atreya, right?" Hilde stared the Thief down.

"...wait, I did?" Sif blinked... and then it hit her. "Oh Magog-nuts."

"Magog-nuts indeed... Mita's gonna have a field day with this."

"Eh?" Sif tilted her head. "Why's that?"

**Vale, Beacon Academy**

**3:54 P.M.**

Another day, another set of classes completed.

Cinder was back in her shared dorm room, feeling her patience slipping away ever so subtly as she had to count down the days before Amity Arena was finally within Vale's airspace. Once it finally linked up with the CCT, then she'd get full access to everything she needed for the next step in this plan...

...well, almost everything. So far, very little information had come in about the Fall Maiden's whereabouts, other than her still potentially being under Atlas's security.

'_Remember her words... don't get hasty, but prepare the next step..._' Unfortunately, much as she wanted to uphold the stern teachings of her master, there was this itch in the back of her mind, one that seemingly refused to be quelled by any method.

It was a dangerous itch, one that Cinder had been dealing with for much of her life... and she knew of only one way to make it recede, but nothing within Vale would provide her that opportunity. At the same time, she knew that letting it get too prevalent would lead to another disaster, just like-

She stopped herself from treading back on that memory, already feeling a small wellspring of irritation arise.

'_Maybe I'll take a page from Mercury's book..._' The training facilities here at Beacon were fairly adequate, so perhaps working off her frustrations would do her some good... and if other students were practicing there, all the better for her to study their fighting styles. Grabbing her Scroll, she sent a message to her team outlining where she'd be for the next few hours.

Weapon in-hand, she headed off towards the training facility.

**Atlas Medical Facility**

**Unknown Atlesian Time**

Winter Schnee ended the somewhat tense call with General Ironwood. In the last few years ever since she had left her family to join the Atlesian Military, she was no stranger to keeping watch over subjects, whether to protect them from others, or to keep them from attempting suicide out of spite.

It had been sometime in the last few years or so that Winter had been asked to help keep vigil over a particularly valuable individual, the same one whom she was about to go see.

Stepping into the sealed off room, Winter approached a much older woman dressed in a green and white hospital gown whom was laid up in a hospital bed. Dark blue eyes took a moment to focus upon her...

"Ah, Winter... come to keep this old woman company again?" She chuckled, and for the briefest of moments Winter could be seen with a small smile on her own face.

"It has been a while, Fria." The smile quickly faded as a look signifying some amount of remorse replaced it. "Unfortunately, my own duties have been keeping me away." Winter took this moment to prepare some hot tea.

"Worry not, child." Once the tea was finished, she took a cup for herself, savoring the warmth as she drank. "Ah, does these old bones good."

"Good to hear." Winter allowed herself this one moment of relative ease before she got back to business. "Anyway, Vale is hosting the 40th Vytal Festival this year."

"Mmm... and if what remains of my memory is correct, the General is having you accompany him?"

"Indeed." After taking a moment to double-check and ensure no loose ears would hear her next statement, she got closer to Fria. "However, it's not just to act as his aid."

"Oh?" This caught Fria's attention as Winter nodded in affirmation.

"It would seem the Autumn Maiden had been waylayed on her way towards Vacuo, though another party saved her life. She was residing here in Atlas once more, but now wishes to resume her travels."

"Autumn Maiden.. Autumn..." Recognition suddenly flashed across Fria's face. "You mean that delightful girl, Amber, don't you?"

"The very same."

"Goodness, it's been... how long now?"

**The Base**

**3:59 P.M.**

Nelius stepped back into reality, shutting the Dual Diver down once more as he circled around to collect his gun. Upon reaching floor 300, he had opted to get healed up and return to reality for the time being.

Epsilon, in the meantime, was thinking back on the battle against Proto-Darkdeath, the recording very fresh in her memory.

Despite being a mass-produced copy of Darkdeath Evilman, the known world-conquering monster of another planet calling itself Earth, Proto-Darkdeath proved to be strong and fast enough to rival its progenitor. One such example was how merely swinging its arms created air currents with enough power to tear the ground asunder... and a few surviving Notorious into ribbons of meat before they faded away into a pink mist.

However, Nelius had one saving grace in that battle... the Proto-Darkdeath units may have been powerful enough to make even Overlords think twice about engaging one in combat, but being fully mechanical imposed a number of limitations upon them. An inability to grow stronger through training, their programming effectively limited to "Kill everything", and no auto-repair unit were just the tip of that iceberg.

This programming had left Proto-Darkdeath with the inability to judge whether or not to attack or dodge. Nelius would choose to use this to his advantage, freezing the floor and its feet to disrupt its attacks. While it had simply pulled itself free, the icy floor all around it proved more than sufficient enough to topple the machine on more than one occasion, giving Nelius the opening he needed to deliver a Big Bang right to its face.

While it had survived the attack (which had also caught a few Notorious in the blast), multiple parts of its internal components were exposed through the attack, alongside the armor having been totalled, giving Nelius all the incentive he needed to slam a fist into its innards, tearing out many of its components and causing its systems to begin shutting down.

One good slam from his axe into its power core put an end to this prototype for good, causing the unstable core to detonate and erase its remains. With the apocalyptic machine totalled, Epsilon figured the other Notorious were too afraid to tangle with someone whom was able to kill it... only to realize that they had been caught up in the middle of the fight, killing them all.

Oh well.

'_Glad I managed to convince him to keep those components... there's so much we could learn from them, and they could be used to upgrade the Diver._'

Heading over to his notebook to jot down the results of this dive, he could hear his Scroll give a chirp, indicating that a new message had come his way. Finishing up his notes, he put the notebook away as he headed over to his Scroll and opened it up.

Sender: Headmaster Ozpin

Subject: A personal request

Raising an eyebrow at this, he opened the message up.

I duly apologize for such a late message, but after some internal debating I have come to realize there is another element to my tale that I did not tell.

For a far more effective way to tell this story, I humbly request you bring your Dual Diver once more.

'_So Oz has even more secrets..._' Epsilon seemed a little wary of the request.

'_Like I said yesterday, he's been carrying all that baggage on his own for some thousands of years, if not longer. Still, for him to turn to an effective stranger like myself for this kind of info..._'

'_In fairness, you not only saved the Autumn Maiden, you also stymied a serious attempt to cripple Vale's infrastructure. Far as I can see, you pretty much earned a fair amount of trust._'

'_Perhaps... still, wonder what this next tale could be about._'

Sender: Nelius Raoul

Subject: Re: A personal request

What time do you want us to show up?

After hitting send, it took about a minute before another response came in.

Sender: Headmaster Ozpin

Subject: Re: Re: A personal request

As soon as possible today. I know it's already a bit late in the afternoon, but this hopefully shouldn't take long.

'_...well, that's potentially ominous._'

'_Still, if it'll give us more clarity on this whole situation, no time like the present to head on up. Also, considering what went down yesterday I didn't get much of a chance to ask some more questions._'

With the die cast, Nelius packed the Dual Diver back up and grabbed a few spare Dust Crystals before heading out.

**Warship Yoshitsuna**

**Unknown Time**

"Whaaaaaa?!" Sif's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as she saw the vast expanse of space they were traveling through.

"Indeed, Sif." Mita was proving a bit less than amused by this situation. "You not only missed your stop, you have now been informally added to this mission. How do you feel?"

Sif was silent, merely staring at the information windows as they passed by another planet to scan.

"Somedays I wonder how Atreya gets along with you."

"Thankfully I grabbed a little extra," Cordelia piped up, "...so we ought to be good as far as supplies go."

"And with the on-board Item Divers back in top condition, generating more supplies should be easy enough." Zio mentioned.

Sif was still catatonic, realizing how her decision to take a quick catnap had unforeseen consequences.

"Looks like encountered a fatal error and needs a restart, dood." York took a moment to gulp down a soda he had chilled with an Ice spell.

"Well, no use looking on the grim side of this..." Raphael had taken a seat. "At the very least, we've got an extra set of hands in-case things take a turn out of our favor."

"That will depend on if she snaps out of that, dood."

Zotia was starting to have more than one regret about taking up this mission.

'_But I signed up for this, that was the deal... just take it slow, Zotia..._'

Raphael was going to respond to the Prinny, but instead turned his attention towards the door.

"Raph?" Hilde quietly asked.

"For a second I thought I sensed something..." He waited a moment, to see if that sensation would come back.

Little did the Celestial know that he was onto something, as the spirit that had overheard his plans in Celestia had stowed away upon the ship. Knowing that the angel would be able to give away its position, it chose to retreat towards the rear of the ship for the moment.

'_When he slumbers..._' The spirit decided. '_When that one slumbers, I will ask._'

**Beacon Academy, Ozpin's Office**

**5:01 P.M.**

Travelling up the elevator once more, Nelius soon found himself at the doors to Ozpin's Office. They opened automatically, and so he entered. The doors closed behind him, and were remotely locked as Ozpin set his Scroll and Desktop to "Do Not Disturb".

Nelius set his case down, and began setting the Dual Diver up once more. After about a minute, it was reconstructed and powered on, an orange gate swirling into existence.

Ozpin nodded, and soon walked in, Nelius following a moment later.

Chapter 20 - Complete


	21. Chapter 21

RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'_Thoughts_'

**Scene Change**

Chapter 21: Rediscovery

Once more they entered into the world of the past that lay within Ozpin's heart, although a discerning eye would see small bits of color sneaking their way onto the surroundings, the dullness fading away.

"Well, Ozpin, you have the floor. Where do we start?" Nelius addressed the Headmaster.

"Let's begin with why I brought you here... from all of the evidence collected so far, it appears that Salem has begun figuring out where I hid the Relics that Creation left with me. Knowing James he's come to a similar conclusion."

'_...somedays I kinda hate it when we're right._' Epsilon grumbled to herself.

"Guessing that's why Cinder's here, then... to grab Vale's Relic and let the kingdom burn?"

"That is the most likely possibility... though without the Autumn Maiden's powers that would be a nigh-impossible task."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me-" Epsilon spoke up, taking holographic form. "-how exactly did Amber gain magic like that, when all the other humans that knew it got vaporized all those thousands of years back?"

Ozpin heaved a bit of a sigh before continuing. The world around them shifted to a cabin in the woods next to a powerful river. Through the windows, a frail, elderly man could be seen, a look on his face that largely told all whom saw him to leave.

'_And that is some resting bastard face..._'

"_There once was a wizard whom lived alone in the woods, a recluse whom chose to hide away from the world. However, one day, he had a visitor for the first time in years._"

A young woman was seen sitting beneath one of the trees outside his hovel. She looked at peace with the world, and with herself, which confused the wizard. Demanding to know what was going on, he gained a simple answer-

"I am Winter. I am on a journey and I am waiting for my sisters." With that, she returned to her peaceful meditation.

"_The Wizard was confused by this, and even thought the girl a fool, but the more he observed her peace, the more he found himself wanting to share in it._"

As the Wizard closed his eyes to reflect upon this, a second girl joined the first. She carried a basket of fruit and flowers. Now seeing the second, he asked again for an explanation.

"I am Spring. I am on a journey, and waiting for my sisters." What she did next was surprising - taking several seeds from her basket, she turned a mere pile of dirt and manure into a beautiful garden, one that promised a bounty.

"_The Wizard would've stared at this wonder for hours, were it not for airy laughter drawing his attention to a third girl that had joined the others. Once again, he asked who she was. Her response?_"

"I am Summer. I'm on a journey, and here to wait for my sister."

"_To his own surprise, the Wizard could hear Summer laugh. Why? What was so humorous? Apparently, it was his reluctance to step outside his own home - why view the world through such a small window, when the door was right there?_"

After a moment of hesitation, the Wizard finally chose to leave his home, and step outside... feeling the sun's warmth on himself invited a feeling that hadn't been present in ages. Was this... joy? Contentment?

"_With the day preparing to end, a grand feast was prepared. Winter set the table, Spring provided the crops, Summer made the meal, and the Wizard was the happiest he had been in his long existence. So much was his joy that he had nearly overlooked a new guest that stood beneath his tree. Inviting her over, he asked her name._"

"I am Fall. I am on a journey, and am here to meet my sisters. Who might you be?"

"Myself?" The Wizard responded. "No one special - just a hermit whom has resided in this woods for centuries. My story is nothing interesting, as I've nobody to love and nothing to my name."

"Why do you say that?" The eldest of the sisters spoke aloud. "You already have so much."

"_The Wizard looked around, and much to his own surprise, saw that her words rang true. He was grateful to have all that he would need, but a burning question still remained._"

"Why me? Why share with me your gifts? What makes me so special?"

The four sisters looked to one another, perplexed by such a question. The eldest would speak once more.

"We did not do these things because you are special. We do what we can for everyone because we are able to."

"_The Wizard was at a complete loss for words. Such kindness still existed in this world? Hesitation no longer clouded his thoughts and mind as he made his decision. He summoned forth every ounce of magic he had, bestowing it upon the sisters._"

"Take this gift, and know now that you're able to do so much more."

Now blessed with nature's elements and the Wizard's unfathomable magical power, the four sisters set out to aid others, just as they had aided him. However, they did promise a certain day to return to the Wizard and visit their friend.

With that, the surroundings shifted back to the Vale of old, and a discerning eye would see a tiny bit more color starting to return.

"That old Wizard... that was you, wasn't it?" Epsilon had caught on almost immediately.

"One of my incarnations. To find such selfless individuals in the world was a rarity after all my previous experiences... and at the same time, they reminded me all too much of..." Ozpin had trailed off, leaving the implication hanging in the air.

After about a minute, Nelius spoke up.

"So how did those powers survive to this time?"

"When a recipient of the Maiden's powers reaches the end of their mortal life, whomever was last in their thoughts would become their successor, to allow for their miracles to survive the passage of time. However, across my multiple lives I had noticed a trend, perhaps a strange shift that I hadn't accounted for happening."

"That being?"

"Firstly, as the powers were bestowed upon the four sisters, only another female soul could receive them. Second, the power would only enter those women whom were below the age of 30, but would remain until their passing, whether by natural causes or otherwise. Lastly, if someone incompatible with the power was thought of, it would seek out a random individual."

"A strange shift indeed. How do these powers relate to the Relics, since you said that Cinder would need the Autumn Maiden's powers to get at whichever one is here?"

"Well, that starts during the end of the Great War..." The scenery began to change once more, showing the sand-ravaged surroundings of old Vacuo as a man armed with a sword and a scepter stepped onto the battlefield.

**Warship Yoshitsuna**

**Unknown Time**

With little left to do other than wait for that crucial information to come in, Raphael had headed back to his personal quarters on-board the ship. He had felt like reading, but partway through a favorite novel of his that feeling began to quickly sublimate into a desire to get some sleep... almost unnaturally so, yet far slower than what any Sleep magic could perform.

'_Odd... I haven't exactly done all that much today, and I'm barely halfway through this..._' Still, he didn't bother trying to fight it, especially after an Espoir spell proved ineffective, and after changing into some more comfortable lounge-wear, he got into his bed and within seconds was out.

About three minutes later, the spirit that had stowed away upon the vessel silently approached, and hesitated for a moment, mostly to ensure that Raphael was indeed asleep.

**Raphael's Dreamscape**

**Unknown Time**

Raphael found himself within a location that felt much like Celestia, though the floating landmasses that dotted the sky looked uninhabited, as if nobody had been here in such a long time. Unless he was seeing things, one of them looked like some kind of satellite made out of stone...

"Greetings, Celestial..." A woman's voice rang clear, catching his attention.

"Who..." Raphael looked over towards where the voice was coming from, but saw nothing.

"I apologize for this meeting, but as you were the one whom reacted most strongly to my presence, I had little recourse but to approach you."

"In this case, might I have the name of whom I'm speaking with?"

"A fair request. I used to have a name in life, but now it's been dragged through the mud... call me Hadiya."

"Hadiya, then... you do realize that given where we are in the greater cosmos, finding your way back to the proper afterlife will be a taxing mission?"

"Honestly, that is of no concern to me. I am willing to rend my remaining consciousness into pieces if it means setting things right."

"Is that correct... and what is '_setting things right_' to you?"

"I was formerly in a great position, but a malevolent will stripped me of it nearly four years ago. Of those I had been in charge of, I know one has managed to escape that being's reach."

"And what, precisely, does this have to do with us?"

"I have heard whispers... one you seek to rescue... is someone I know, someone I trained. I must set things right..."

"Do you mean-" The dreamscape was beginning to fade away. "Hey! What's going on!"

"I apologize, but... must rest... recover... we will speak again..."

**Ozpin's Heart**

**5:41 P.M.**

"There was a reason the Huntsman Academies were established, beyond just fighting the Grimm."

The King of Vale, another of Ozpin's incarnations, could be seen aiding in directing the establishment of the Academies. With each one completed, he entrusted a certain Relic to each school - the Lantern to Mistral, the Staff to Atlas, the Crown to Vale, and the Sword in Vacuo.

"I see..." Nelius had caught onto the strategy. "Hide 'em behind a veritable wall of fighters, both experienced and learning."

"More than just that." The memory shifted, showing a long hallway beneath one of the Academies. The King could be seen working alongside a woman with graying black hair, tracing something on a door. "To add an extra layer of security, a lock system was made to hide the Relics inside specially crafted vaults, ones made to hide their power from being felt. The key would be a specific Maiden's magical power."

"Hold on." Epsilon piped up. "Why just one? Why not a combination of all four, make it extremely difficult to get at them?"

"I had thought of that initially, but circumstances beyond my control demanded otherwise." The scene shifted once more as Ozpin explained. "Given that the Maiden powers would seek out indiscriminate hosts, it made searching for all four at a time a daunting task, given that technology of the time wasn't quite up to the task of worldwide coverage, and some of the recipients were just as hermitic as I had been..."

The surroundings shifted once more, showing a different incarnation of Ozpin trying his best to calm what looked like a young child... one that looked not only intensely frightened, but was also hiccuping fire.

"At the same time, there was one incident where the powers had chosen to settle within a toddler, and needless to say it made getting that one under control quite the daunting task."

"Yeah... little kid with big powers and no real way to finely control 'em..."

'_I can imagine one situation that'd be worse, but that's for another time._' Nelius thought to himself as Ozpin continued explaining.

"Even back then... there were people whom sought to take the Maiden's powers for their own, so more often than not there were multiple attempts on their lives, forcing some Maidens to seek asylum in out of the way settlements."

"So just like what happened with Amber." Nelius had stated, catching on.

Ozpin simply nodded in response.

"What about body guards?" Epsilon asked.

"At first, they had proven effective, but eventually it became clear that some of the bodyguards were being bribed to sabotage the Maidens' safe passage between kingdoms. Soon we had to switch to more long-range guardians, those whom would shadow the Maiden from a distance and be able to step in should problems arise."

"Say..." Nelius spoke aloud after a moment of contemplation, "..how much in the way of training did Amber have with her powers? I can't help but imagine she only recently got them, even with how she managed to handle Cinder's group trying to take her down."

"I had offered to help guide her with her recent acquisition, but she never took the offer, wishing to continue on her journeys across the world. Whenever the opportunity arose, I would ask Qrow to shadow her, to help keep her safe."

"Explains why we ran into him last year. Still, Cinder's more than likely going to make another attempt at stealing those powers..."

"Hm?" The sound of growling began to echo around the two of them as multiple Grimm began to appear. Ozpin, in turn, had extended his cane. "How did they get in?"

"Looks like your subconscious have come out to play." Nelius, in turn, had unholstered his gun.

"... my what?"

"The subconscious." Epsilon took over explaining. "The physical manifestations of things like prejudice, pride, fear... little bits of the mind that hold people back from accomplishing what they truly could. They take the form of beings generally familiar to the host."

The look of complete disbelief on Ozpin's face said it all.

"...just when I thought I had gotten a grasp on this situation..."

"Stick around, Ozpin. Shit's only gonna get weirder from here." Nelius capped this off by putting a bullet through the head of one of the subconscious Grimm that tried to swipe at him, erasing everything from the neck up. Just like in real life, this incensed the rest into attacking.

Ozpin's Cane looked to be merely that, but with the way Beacon's Headmaster wielded it, you'd be forgiven for thinking the wooden shaft had been sharpened to a point that matched or exceeded most metallic weaponry. One quick thrust through a Beowolf's throat killed it with ease, and with one swipe two others had been eliminated.

"These... subconscious..." Ozpin quickly leaned to a side to avoid an Ursa's paw that was aimed for his face, "...why are they attacking?" With several quick stabs into its stomach, Ozpin felled the Ursa.

"_**Failure... again...**_" One of the Grimm-shaped subconscious could be heard harshly whispering... whispering in a voice that sounded all too familiar to the Headmaster.

Her voice... Salem's voice.

"_**Always the same outcome...**_"

"_**Never-ending failure...**_"

"_**Ruin is inevitable...**_"

"My best guess is lingering doubt." Epsilon responded as Nelius ripped another one in half. "Normally these things are content to hide away in the hopes of being left alone, so for them to try this would suggest they don't like any changes you've been trying to make."

Nelius brought his foot down, jamming his heel into the head of one shaped like a Creep and splattering it across the ground.

"_**They'll kill you...**_"

"_**They'll erase all of us...**_"

"_**Why bother continuing?**_" This one, however, sounded much more like one of Ozpin's former lives.

Ozpin did his level best to block out the taunting voices as he continued defeating these subconscious-Grimm... yet for each one he felled, it looked as though five more took their place.

"_**You're a fool, Ozpin...**_"

"_**This will never end...**_"

"_**You've already-**_" The last one was promptly interrupted by a lightning-fast swipe of Ozpin's cane that decapitated it. Ozpin himself had missed it, but anyone with a discerning eye would've seen faint sparks around the area that had made contact.

"I've heard enough."

**Warship Yoshitsuna**

**Unknown Time**

"There goes another failure..." Brutus took this moment to stand up and stretch, the readout from the life-scanner unit showing no traces of their target.

Zio, in the meanwhile, was fiddling with an old communications unit.

"Zio, what're you messing with that for?"

"Considering what we demons can do, I figured it prudent to scan the local waves. There might be an alert going out for someone casually tossing fireballs and mountains around."

"...huh. Interesting train of thought."

"Should I find anything interesting I will make certain to notify you all... assuming this thing still works." The unit sparked a bit, as if echoing his sentiment.

Meanwhile, further in the back, Raphael was awake once more, and mulling over something.

'_What an odd dream I had... someone named Hadiya wants our assistance, and assuming I heard it all correctly she's after the same people we are._'

The sound of someone knocking on the door to his room snapped the Celestial from his thoughts.

"It's open." He called. The door slid open, and a familiar mop of violet-colored hair peeked in.

"Raph? You all right?"

"I'm well, Hilde... just thinking on a slight oddity from earlier."

"An oddity?" One of Hilde's eyebrows raised slightly.

"Remember when I said I thought I sensed something earlier?" At her nod, he continued, "...it seems a stray spirit has drifted onto the ship. It calls itself 'Hadiya', and she seeks the same people we do. She knows of Celestia, and the Netherworld."

"Do we know if she can be trusted?"

"That is what I intend to find out. It seems I'm the only one she's spoken with so far, and I'm expecting a second talk sometime soon."

**Ozpin's Heart**

**6:21 P.M.**

With the last of the subconscious Grimm fading away, Ozpin took a moment to step back. He had been intending to catch his breath, given that it had been a fair amount of time since he had last stepped onto the field of battle, but this...

"...what in the.." In sharp contrast to his expected exhaustion, he felt... alive, as if the previous half-hour of battle simply hadn't happened. He hadn't felt this strong in a long time... not quite as strong as Ozma, but fairly close...

To test this feeling, he took a swipe with his cane, only for a sharpened projectile of wind to suddenly fly out from the tip, racing towards several trees and cleanly cutting them down.

"My word... was that-"

"With each subconscious taken out, that's a little bit of power returned to you." Nelius told the Headmaster. "And with all of those subconscious gunning for your blood, it's quite a fair bit of strength you've reclaimed."

Ozpin looked from the off-world demon, to the trees that he had cleanly cut down with practically no effort.

"...and here I had thought it lost to me, between granting the four sisters my magic and each incarnation taking a little bit of my remaining strength."

"In ordinary circumstances, perhaps... but matters pertaining to the Netherworld are anything but ordinary." Nelius then gestured to himself, "...case in point."

An idea suddenly flashed into the Headmaster's mind... a dangerous thought, but one that could prove useful for future matters.

"Say, Mr. Raoul... if this Dual Diver of yours is able to help regain lost power, could it be turned towards enhancing one's Semblance, maybe even finding new ways to utilize it?"

"Considering Semblances are tied to the soul, I see little reason why it wouldn't. Though, before we go any further, we good on time?"

Ozpin took this moment to think on that, pulling out his Scroll as he did so. The time read 6:31 P.M.

"It is getting late, and I do have a few duties to attend to. We may have to do this another time."

"Fair enough. You got my Scroll number, so when you're free we can pick this up again."

It was time for them to depart, and with the orange gate opening up, their way back to reality was set. However, neither had noticed one of the subconscious watching them, seemingly taking notes about the odd duo...

'_Just maybe..._'

**The Base**

**7:54 P.M.**

"This circuitry is something else." Epsilon was busy studying what they had managed to rip out of the Proto-Darkdeath unit from earlier today. "Kind of a shame someone put it towards that kind of use."

"If by some chance we were to meet the creator of the Proto-Darkdeath units, want to reserve that first fist in their face?" Nelius asked, a somewhat knowing grin on his face.

"I'll have to take you up on that offer. But for now... I bet that if we use this to replace the central power transfer line, we could get a lot more out of a Dust Crystal or the Shatterpact's batteries."

Nelius had that written down.

"That reminds me... this data interpretation unit ought to be ideal for getting better information out of each dive. It'd make maximizing our trips much less of a hassle."

"That ought to be the case. Still, we may need to rewrite several of the processes before installation... and maybe acquire some more pieces to see if they'd work with our ideas." Epsilon stored this particular bit of information away for when they had a little spare time to experiment. A few minutes of note-taking and theorizing passed by before she spoke up again. "Say..."

"What's on your mind?"

"It's about Salem. Sooner or later she's gonna cotton onto us, and even if there's little she can do to actively harm us, unless we can rid her of that pesky immortality it's gonna end up as an even worse stalemate than the one between Ozpin and herself."

"If there is a way to break her immortality, aside from her finally deciding to accept the whole life/death balance, then it would need to be discovered or created." Nelius went silent for a moment, before an idea crept up. "Then again, what we know of her immortality is that her soul won't ever reach the afterlife, correct?"

"Seems like it, assuming Ozpin's memories are accurate. No matter what she does to herself, her body's made to completely regenerate from any kind of infliction, denying her the chance to travel to whatever afterlife Remnant has. I'd honestly be surprised if she really did any mental facilities still active, given that human minds and souls aren't quite made to last past 100 years or so."

"Given Ozpin's managed to hang on for the time he has, safe bet to say Salem's is in the same boat. More and more it's sounding like her soul would have to be completely eradicated if she refuses to accept the escape clause."

"...you know of things that could do that?"

"Just one, maybe two, but then again it's mostly heresay from back home, and I honestly doubt that either one would be this far out in the cosmos." It was another minute of mental deliberation before he spoke up again. "Then again, assuming most of her magic is focused on offensive-only deals there ought to be a way to burn her magic out... unless it's tied to her soul, like Ozpin's."

"But their kids were able to use magic, so it might actually have been a genetic passing from Salem."

The two offworlders continued their work, taking note of which parts from the Proto-Darkdeath would work best within the Dual Diver, inter-spaced with ideas on what to do should Salem come calling.

What neither of them had noticed was the Diver silently activating of its own accord, coding lines quickly beginning to scroll across the access panel...

Chapter 21 - Complete


End file.
